A Frozen Heart Part one
by XxSoulxofxtearsxX
Summary: A Gaara love story: Maria is a S-rank criminal in the Ninja world.  She has decided to lay low and has managed to get the title of Genin back but what'll happen when she meets her real father and an old friend?
1. Chapter 1 Father?

_Chapter one ~ Father?_

_Near past_

'I think I'll go see mom today….' you thought as the sun woke you up through your shattered window. The villagers don't take kindly to people with odd powers. Then again, who does? But the sunlight brought comfort because you just woke from a nightmare, a recurring nightmare, since your mother died. She died when you were 6 years old and the day right after your sixth birthday. It just so happens that your birthday is today! You are 12 today.

You thought about your mother as you got dressed. Her beautiful flowing brown hair, ice blue eyes, average figure, friendly posture…. Her name was Priscilla Kiri; she also had a special power that she gave to you when you were born - The power to control mist, water, and ice.

The hall you walked in was sparkling clean because your father made you clean _everything_. Let's just say he isn't the nicest person alive. You slid the door open and bowed to your father deeply. 'Too bad I promised the Hokage and Kakashi that I wouldn't use my powers unless necessary…they never said exactly what necessary was. Better not though….'

You stayed a little ways from your father and asked him politely and timidly "Wh-what would you like for breakfast, father?" He yelled at you uncaringly.

"Onigiri! Now!" 'God, I hate this man.' You rolled your eyes and went to the pantry and made breakfast and once your father was done, he lifted you up by the neck. He glared as you struggled. "Do not…roll your eyes at me…." You nodded as fast as you could then he dropped you to the ground and you coughed. Oh, but he didn't care.

"Damn it…." A few tears came from your eyes and your father slapped your check and kicked you to a wall making you bang your head.

Izaku Kiri was about to punch his so called _daughter_. But a man ran in at the last moment, grabbed his hand and whispered in his ear. Izaku glared once more then told you to have dinner ready when he got back - At 7:00 pm. He left quickly.

Tears came from your eyes again and sobs came too. 'This only happens to me doesn't it? Of course … I deserve it for what I've done. But was it really that bad? I guess so….' Thoughts couldn't leave you, they were the only thing you had left. Dignity was long gone.

'I'll just go and take a swim' Swimming always calmed you down. Anything that involved your element made you feel safe – except for storms and such. Your face cleared from the tears and you went to your room. A picture of your mom was in a small sack, you were planning to leave for a long time. Go to Sunagakure – The hidden village of sand. But you stayed for a while; a bad feeling kept lingering in your stomach so you didn't leave. You put away your silver butterfly necklace then walk to the cemetery. A headstone with your mother's name and date were at the very back of the cemetery.

"Oh, mom…. I can't believe you're gone; it's still like a dream. But I'll be leaving soon. I'll come back, but I have to leave this place, it's miserable." You got on your knees and prayed for her. A sigh slipped from your lips and you stood up again. "I love you."

The cemetery in Rito – Well any cemetery would be miserable, but because your mom died, it's unbearable. You walked to the forest where a river was and dived in. 'Refreshing….' You surrendered to the water and let the current carry you as you thought. 'I don't suppose…I'll ever have a real home? But even if I do go then I will have to hide the fact that I have a blood limit. Besides that, no one's going to take the fact that I was an assassin very well, let alone _Shimo No Maria_. Heh...I'd love to see the sight of people actually accepting me as Shimo No Maria, the Silent Killer. Amusing….' You heard a sound from a bush and jumped out of the water. It was just Midori.

"What are you doing here, Midori?" Midori is a 7 year old girl that doesn't exactly like you or your father; she thinks that your father was the one with the powers.

"I promised the villagers that I would kill you and your father!" You think the kid's an idiot. You weren't all that surprised and rolled your eyes then made water out of nowhere and wrapped it around Midori but let her breathe and whispered:

"Kori." Kori means ice so the water turned to ice. You walked back to the village and knocked on Midori's father's house. Her father opened the door and sighed. "She still wants to kill me. I wonder who told her to do that?" It was an obvious question and the father was embarrassed as you let Midori go by whispering "Mizu, kiri, dissipate." Midori waved cautiously as she grabbed her father's hand. You walked away with a smirk and waved. 'Won't have to deal with her for much longer.' You decided right then to leave in 2 weeks and without realizing was in the forest again but didn't know what time it was. Right before you left the forest, an ominous mist filled the area. 'How odd…oh! It's my birthday…I'm 12, I can't believe I didn't realize, tch, doesn't matter.'

You went back to your house, made dinner and it was peaceful for 2 weeks. To a point anyway.

_Present_

'Finally…the day I leave.' Your annual nightmare haunts you. The nightmare is when you killed your mother. You couldn't do anything to stop yourself as Orochimaru was controlling you. You mumbled to yourself sleepily: "It can't hurt to swim one more time…." You grabbed your little black sack and put in a picture of your mom and the silver butterfly necklace.

You thought as you walked to the river for one last swim. 'What will I find? Should I even go to Suna? It's probably a lot better than this place though.' You jumped into the river after putting your stuff near the river bank. You have always loved the water because of your blood limit. And though you had just got in the water, you had to go back out after hearing the bushes again. But they were harder to hear. The presence definitely wasn't Midori, it was too strong. You got out of the water, dried off, strapped your sack to your jeans and put a water barrier around yourself, though you forgot to put the barrier around your ankles. You started walking back to the village but an ominous mist filled the air and your senses got distorted. "What's going on?" you whispered quietly. Once you reach the edge of the forest, you realize what an odd feeling you had – You had the same feeling before you killed your mother. Orochimaru was nearby, possibly in the forest. Right as you realized that a needle was thrown in each of your ankles; you fell to the ground and heard a laugh of malice.

"Hello, Maria. If you don't mind, which I know you do, I'm going to go and kill everyone in Rito. That's not a problem right?" He smirked and you had daggers for eyes.

"It is! Why do you ruin my life? Why do you hurt people so much? It's unbearable…." You got angry and ripped the needles out of your ankles. Orochimaru waved and you felt regret. 'If I joined him before, no one would be hurt….' You felt guilt, regret and all sorts of feelings. Orochimaru left the forest and the same eerie mist was over the village. "Orochimaru! Don't! They don't deserve to be hurt!" You disappeared and reappeared in the village-everyone was on the ground, not breathing, hearts stopped….

"Bastard! Why did you do this? They have done nothing to you!" Orochimaru only smirked as you saw Midori and ran to her. You checked her heart beat and no pulse came, tears came down your eyes. "Midori…you've got to wake up! St-stop playing with me! Wake up, please!" You stood up and faced Orochimaru head on, he laughed as you tried to kill him with kunai and shuriken. He threw you to the ground and spoke in the worst way he could, to leave you in despair.

"They are all dead. No one will wake up. You are probably stronger than all the kage put together, but you will never defeat me, I will always win, I am stronger than you. Give up and join me. I did this because I can, and I finally was able to track you down after you ran away from me." He stepped closer to you and grabbed your wrist and twisted it. You screamed in pain and he continued, "I can't promise I won't kill while you watch, I will make you join me, if you don't you will die. I'll come for your answer when you're 13. Almost exactly a year, but depending on the circumstances, it could be sooner. Goodbye, my daughter, you _will_ join me."

"Daughter! What the hell are you talking about?" You gasped as everyone rose from the ground and started throwing whatever weapons they could at you. You let them throw them but tears came whether you tried holding it in or not. You glared at Orochimaru and then felt a sharp pain in your back. He smirked and disappeared, but his voice came through the air.

"To live...you must stab all of them. Everyone of them. Don't try to stop them, pretend your 6 again-kill them like you did your mother!" You felt the anger rising but did nothing. The villagers still threw the weapons and you couldn't take it and stabbed them. 'How...inhumane...' you thought and slowly realized that you had been hit a few times: twice in your stomach, one in each ankle, four in your back, and one in your right shoulder.

Feeling numb, you left the village in ruin. Your feet took you wherever, anywhere but the bloodbath. You couldn't think, couldn't feel.

4 days later

You kept running the whole thing over and over in your mind. You hadn't eaten or drank anything for four days, but you didn't even notice, as nothing seemed to matter. You could barely see, hardly hear, you needed to scream loud to get it all out. So you did. "AHHH!" And as you screamed water, mist and ice circled around your ankle and left a word there. Ai... "Ai...means Love." The first time you talked in four days. Well, who was there to talk to? No one, no one to help. Mist surrounded you, then water, then ice, making you safe inside a crystal. You saw out of your crystal a blurry figure-human or not, you called out to it with your mind. No reply, but it wasn't exactly expected.

The crystal of ice melted to water, the water to mist and as the mist dissipated, you fell to the darkness, comforting, but lonely at the same time. Then a nightmare that soon left and made you wake in a red and black room...

_End of chapter 1 ~ Father?_


	2. Chapter 2 A Friend Met On The Full Moon

_Chapter 2 ~ A friend met on a full moon_

You awaken in a red and black room. There was a wooden floor, black walls and everything else red. You were in a bed with crimson covers and black sheets. There were crimson drapes over the open window.

You suddenly realized that you were bandaged and remembered what happened at Rito so you sat up too quickly. You grabbed your head from even the mildest dizziness. You got out of bed slowly and walked around the house you were in. It was a large house with many rooms and halls. But no one was home. You went back to the room you were in and went through the window then jumped up to the roof. You landed with a thud. "Ow..." you groaned from the pain, physical _and _emotional. You looked up and saw the moon's blue rays clearly. "Full moon...pretty..." You were mumbling to yourself-well, maybe.

"You moron..." You heard a masculine voice to the left of you. A boy about your age was a few meters away and lying down on his back facing away from you. He had reddish-brown spiky hair. A gourd lay on the roof at his feet. You crawled over to him but he still didn't turn.

"Hey, were you the one that found me?" It must be a little odd speaking to someone you've never met before, and without seeing their face either. But the boy stayed silent as if he didn't hear you. "Why am I moron?"

He sighed and adjusted his position a little but still didn't let you see his face. "You're a moron because you're moving around when you collapsed with many injuries. And yeah...I did find you in the desert, alone. Moron's die, I shouldn't have saved you..." Now, that was a little mean wasn't it? But he apologized. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that." You blushed lightly but it faded.

"Thank you anyways..."

"You're...welcome." you reached out your hand to touch his face. But you hesitated and balanced yourself with your left hand. Then you reached out again with your right after holding it to your chest. You stopped right before him, but caressed his cheek.

"You're...a nice person." At that, he turned to face you, Now he was on his back with one leg bent up. He looked really happy but there was a hint of sadness. He looked at you, then at your hand caressing his cheek. He held his left hand on top of your hand then he closed his eyes and smiled. A few tears fell down his cheek, both of you blushed lightly then he spoke to you softly, and thoughtfully.

"Thank you..." You both stayed that way for a while, it seemed like forever. Even if it was for only a few minutes.

The boy had Black all around his eyes, so it must be a seal. You can't remember which one though. He had red-brown hair and wore a fishnet shirt with a solid black over top with Baggy black pants and dark ninja sandals. He looked very pale and had a sad look in his eye. He slowly took your hand away and sat up. His face went cerise as he spoke. "My name is Gaara...of the Desert," He seemed to be trying not to blush but it wasn't working to well. "You should stay away from me, unless you want to get hurt unexpectedly." He was serious. Maybe too serious about that. Though you caught a small bit of hope in his voice, but also fear. 'He opens up easily.' you thought. You wondered about a question.

"Does that...also mean that you are alone...?" Your question startled him a little. He, twitched, avoided your eyes and spoke again.

"People are...they're scared of me and call me a monster. It's not surprising though." His eyes went blank and without knowing, you grabbed his arm and said:

"You are not!"

"What...?" He replied with sadness in his eyes.

"I said you're not a monster! If you're a person willing to save people then you're not a monster. I'm grateful to you for saving my life...and also grateful for being able to meet someone that knows the pain of loneliness, with no one to help..." Gaara was shocked and you began to blush as you realized you gave a part of your inner feelings away.

Gaara just kept staring in your eyes with surprise and then said: "You understand me..."

You couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I do." You took your hand away and then continued. "I'm Maria. I'm also a little surprised that you don't know me. Not that it's a good thing, but people always used to try to kill me-even little kids." You smirked a little because only one person has ever hurt you without getting hurt themselves-Your father, because you weren't allowed to anymore.

"Maria..." Mumbled Gaara, he had a wondering look in his eye.

"Uh...yeah?" He was looking you straight in the eye, and it made you uncomfortable. Gaara noticed and looked away.

"Why were you alone in the desert...and what happened to you?"

A single tear left your eye as you began to speak. "Well, let's just say that someone that supposedly is my real father came and tried to kill me. Then he took control of the villagers and made them try to kill me, he told me stab them all or else I would die. I hated that village because of the people, but in truth I don't think they were all bad. I think they just misunderstood people with blood limits. Anyway...when he told me to stab them, I did. I still have things to do, and they were already dead anyway..." Tears that you tried suppressing came down and someone brought you into a warm hug. He wiped away your tears and frowned.

"Somehow, I know how you feel. I won't let you feel alone." He spoke thoughtfully, it made the shard of ice in your heart melt a little. You made the tears stop with a little work but it happened. He asked you to continue.

"I...once I grabbed a picture of my mom and the necklace she gave me before she died, I just left with a numb feeling. I didn't and don't ever want to see that many dead bodies ever again. I couldn't think and just walked. But after a few days straight of walking, I needed to scream and did, but mist water and ice surrounded me. After a few minutes a word appeared around some swirling water and ice around my ankle. Then the ice turned to water, the water to mist and then I suddenly fainted after the mist dissipated. The character was Ai, Love." Gaara flinched at the word love then held you closer. He sighed and whispered in your ear.

"I too...share that feeling. I am the same. Look at me." You moved your head to look at him as he moved his hair from the left side of his forehead, revealing the character Ai. "I'm the same, in need of love... This'll sound weird but I know you from somewhere, and I never want to leave you again. I want to be by your side forever. I'm not going to let you go again."

You were speechless for a few minutes. But then you chuckled a dark laugh. "You're a nice person. But I don't want someone like you to be influenced by a killer like me." You chuckled again after telling him.

He sighed then said: "I don't care what you've become, I won't let you go again." You stayed silent at that. But you felt you had to say something, or rather ask.

"What...do you mean by that?"

He replied quickly. "I mean that I've known you before and you were so fragile. And it seems like you still are but you have a different look in your eyes from the last time I saw you..." He sighed and then let go of you but before he could you adjusted your position to hug him.

"Gaara," You said sadly, "I'm sorry, I just don't remember you. I don't remember ever meeting you before, so I'm sorry. But since I can't remember, how about we start over?"

Gaara sighed again and pushed you away then stood up. After grabbing his gourd. He ran a hand through his hair and then spoke. "That would...be nice. But just to tell you, we only knew each other for about half an hour. But it was memorable for me... Anyway, you should get some sleep. You can stay in the room you were in before."

"Gaara..." You were speechless again. Just the way this guy spoke made you fall into a trance. His looks were starting to catch you.

"-Ria...Maria? What's wrong?" Gaara had bent down and was right in your face with a look of confusion. You blushed and looked away.

"N-nothing...I'm fine..."

"You're a bit more out of it since I last saw you. It's kind of cute." He made you blush harder so you got up and turned around then said:

"I'll go to bed now...but I consider you my friend. Uh...I'll...see you in the morning." You still wanted to hear his voice and tried to make a conversation. "So...don't you sleep? I mean, what time is it anyway? Haha..." Let's just say it's hard for you to make conversation while embarrassed.

Gaara walked a little and ended up in front of you. "First of all," He began, "I can't sleep or else the demon inside me will take over. Plus, that's a little scary if you want to be yourself when you wake up. And I don't exactly have a bed to sleep in at the moment." He smiled a little and you were embarrassed again. You simply gazed in his eyes while he talked. They were like the ocean, a great void just ready to embrace you, and his voice took you away from the world as well. He chuckled lightly, took your hand and brought you down to his room. "Here, get some rest. You look like your going to faint so get lots of it."

Once Gaara lets go of your hand a girl comes into his room and starts yelling like a maniac. "Oh no! Where is she? I told Gaara I would watch her and now she's not here, what if she got kidnapped?" She just went on and on and Gaara got an anime sweat drop. The girl has 4 blond pigtails and a purple shirt with a fishnet one underneath. You suppose they are ninja as well as you.

Gaara reached out his hand and spoke slowly. "T-Temari...she hasn't been kidnapped. She was with me the whole time. Wait...where the hell were you in any case?" The girl apparently named Temari suddenly glomped Gaara and was all cheerful.

"Yes! I'm not dead! What a good little monster...I mean brother. Me and Kankuro got drunk! You know that little bar downtown." Gaara glanced back at you sadly and then pushed Temari away from him. She smiled and did a peace sign with her hands. "Goodnight monster's friend. Goodnight monst...er...brother!" Temari pranced out of the room.

Gaara shut the door with a depressed look in his eyes. He took off his gourd and placed it in a corner. "You can get changed in here. I won't look." He sat on his bed and looked out the window.

You replied while sort of out of it. "I...don't really have anything to change into, and...are you alright...?" Gaara got up and said he would ask Temari for something that might fit you, even though she's 4 years older. He left and then soon came back. He gave you some pink short-shorts and a shirt with a heart on it. You got changed quickly and then walked over to him "Gaara?" He didn't respond so you tapped him on the shoulder. "Gaara...?" You walking in front of him and his eyes were showing veins so he grabbed your wrist hard and it made you fall to the ground. His eyes made him look like he was going to kill someone. "G-Gaara! Please stop it, what's wrong? Ah! Gaara!"

Gaara's eyes widen and he pulled you into an embrace on the wooden floor. His voice becomes softer and sadder. "I'm sorry! Are you alright? I didn't know what was going on...no, that's no excuse but please forgive me. I'm so sorry. How is your wrist?" He grabbed your hand carefully to look at your wrist.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me."

"Do you want me to leave? I will if you want me-"

"Gaara."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"Gaara! Shut up!" He stopped talking and you looked at him with sympathy. Your hair covered your eyes as tears fell down your face rapidly. You wrap your arms around him, he holds you tighter. "Gaara...please don't talk about leaving me. Don't leave me..." Gaara sighs as you keep crying, he whispers in your ear.

"I'm sorry. Maria, your right...sorry. I'll never leave you."

"Th-thank you Gaara..."

The next day

You awake to see Gaara's gourd in the same corner of his black and crimson room. But no Gaara. 'Oh...that's right. I met Gaara...again I guess. Orochimaru came to Rito and then he...he...' There was a creaking noise. The door opened so you sat up and see Gaara walk into the room with a towel around his hips. He walked to his dresser and sighed. He sat down in front of it and then lays down on his back after saying. "I finally met her again...the only person keeping me alive..." His words made you go cerise. You slowly climbed out of bed without making a sound and crawled over to Gaara. "She has such a pretty name..." You sit on your knees near Gaara and lean over him and say:

"You have a pretty cool name too and just how am I keeping you alive?" Gaara went pink and opened his eyes making you blush at how true they were. It's like he can't tell a lie.

"W-what are you talking about? You're the one with a name meaning beloved. Mine only means to love oneself... A-and who says your keeping me alive? And when did you wake up?" You kept getting more and more pink as you looked into his eyes. He began to sit up and you slowly leaned your face to his as he did too. He reached out for your cheek and then the door opened with a burst of air. And Temari came in...

Temari walked in with a humongous fan and was all cheery even though she should have had a hangover from the drunkenness last night. "Hey Guys! What do you want for Break...fast?" And so, she killed the moment and then called out to her brother. "Kankuro! Get over here!" Within a few minutes, a boy about the same age as Temari came into the room as well. Gaara was looking a little annoyed so he glared at Temari. "Kankuro! Gaara just got laid!" Gaara snapped and went bright red.

"I-I-I did nothing to her!" He took his hand away and you looked away from them all to make your rapid heart beat calm down. "She...was asking a...heartfelt question..."

And that was true. But Kankuro cut in. "Oh...then why are you only wearing a towel."

"Because I took a bath, you moron!"

"Oh, sure. You took a bath for some_one._"

"What are you getting at?" Gaara was getting too mad so you thought inside your head. 'With the touch of a palm, you will become calm.' You lightly touched his leg and he blinked a little then he said: "Just get out of my room." They left and then you took your hand off of his leg. "Maria..." Gaara grabbed your hand and slowly asked "What...did you do?" He looked confused and curious. But he put his face right to yours as he asked. Then he sighed and got you to stand up with him. He smiled then he grabbed your shoulders making you go red-_again_. Gaara noticed and whispered. "You blush a lot. Or are you getting the wrong idea's about my actions?" You turned around after seeing Gaara smirk, but he pulled you close to him by wrapping his arm around your waist, he moved your hair and blew in your ear. You quickly put your hand to your ear, pushed him away and turned to face him.

"H-hey, if your the one to say that then what are you doing?" All you heard after that was a chuckle. Gaara leaned against his wall and tried to stop laughing but it was a sad attempt. "I'll get you back for that..." You rolled your eyes at the laughing fool.

He stopped laughing long enough to say: "But your just so cute when you blush. And you're so easy to play with!" He continued laughing so you went over to him, took his cheek and kissed him on his lips. He stopped laughing and went red.

"And there's my retaliation." You smirked and he sunk to the floor with his hair covering his eyes as his face went even more red.

"Y-you didn't have to go that far..." He slowly touched his lips but that kiss made the both of you blush. The fact that you actually wanted to do that made you red.

"It's just _playing_ isn't it? don't blame me, it was you who said it." This time you laughed and you started to walk out of his room. "Haha, I'll let you get dressed now." Gaara grabbed your hand before you got out. He was standing up, still blushing. He didn't say anything and was finding it hard to talk. You turned around to face him and took your hand back. "Hey, we're the only two that understand each other right? You'll get over it within a few minutes."

Gaara avoided your eyes and then said: "That was my first..."

You blushed again then agreed. "It was...mine as well." After a few minutes of complete awkwardness, you walked out of the room and Gaara got changed.

A villager came bursting into the house and yelled: "A monster came along with an odd mist and is destroying the village! Someone help!" They went back out and then you heard screams.

You ran out and appeared outside of the house and tried using your blood limit. You held your hand high up in the air but you forgot you got hurt in Rito. So you were a little weak. 'Kakashi told me never to use my powers when I'm hurt but that can't be helped at the moment! I can't let anyone die here!' You thought about the man who called you daughter and then made an ice barrier around half of Sunagakure. But it broke when Orochimaru grabbed your hand and threw you up in the air. A shard of ice went through his back and you went back down to stab him with a kunai, you are the only one that can kill him. "Orochimaru! After what you did to Rito and Mother I won't let you live!" You yelled as blood came out of his stomach.

"But you are the one that killed your mother. I did nothing at all. Now, now. Why would I kill the woman I loved? Face it. You killed her and you are my daughter. I'll say it again. You will join me when you are 13 or you will die."

"No...that's a lie! You controlled me!"

"You killed her with your own hands either way."

You were silent and he threw you against Gaara's home. Gaara came out as Orochimaru grabbed your neck. You struggled to get out of his grasp and put a hand in the air to put another barrier up. It worked for a while. Gaara came running toward you but you pushed him over with water and struggled to say "St-stay away! I don't want you dead! No one within my site will die unless I'm the one to kill them!" Gaara stood a little ways away but was slowly moving forward. Orochimaru spoke to Gaara as he held your neck tighter, making you cough up blood.

"Take her advice. She's already killed thousands of people but I'm the only one she can't kill. She could kill you in 20 seconds or less. But then again...like father, like daughter... Right Maria?" Your eyes turn black and you push Orochimaru off then slash his thumb off.

You attack Orochimaru will a dark blood lust. "I am not your damn daughter! And Gaara, don't believe a word he says! I'll be done here soon. Save the villagers and don't let any die!" Gaara left to save the villagers and then you smirked as you stabbed his stomach again and he coughed up blood onto your face. You moved the kunai to his side and made a deep gash inside of him. He was bleeding from the inside now and it would take him a long time to heal. You smirked and punched him as Gaara came back. "Orochimaru, we're going to hell together. I exist to kill you, so once you die, it's me as well. So go peacefully!"

"Maria, don't!"

Gaara came and grabbed you by the waist and you stayed still because you didn't want to hurt him. But you were mad that he didn't let you kill Orochimaru. Who, speaking of which, began to go after the villagers so you put up another barrier after pushing Gaara to the floor. You saw _one_ villager get hit in the heart with a kunai. Meaning they would die. You made a sword out of ice and sliced Orochimaru in half. It turned out to be a replacement technique. You got rid of the sword as you heard Orochimaru say this: "The same thing in Rito, take care of that child." The villager that died was a small boy not more than 6 years old. He rose from the ground and your eyes went back to normal.

"You bastard! I won't do it!" Orochimaru made the boy head toward the other villagers so you appeared in front of him and stabbed him in the heart as tears welled up inside you. The boy fell to the ground slowly and blood poured from his small heart. Your tears overflowed and you fell to the hard sand after mumbling: "I'm so useless. I let someone else die...why is it this way...?" The last thing you saw was beautiful green eyes, and the blood of the boy beside you. Gaara shook you to get you up, but you had lost all the energy you had trying to survive and save everyone. You felt a wet tear fall from above and a scared voice.

"Maria!"

_End of Chapter 2 ~ A Friend Met On The Full Moon_


	3. Chapter 3 Quick Regret

_Chapter 3~Quick Regret_

You wake up once again in Gaara's room. As you open your eyes, you hear a pleading voice choked by sobs. "Please...don't leave me. You're the only one that has ever understood... I only just met you again...don't leave me...Maria..." You realize who is so sad. You turn your head and see red hair with black around wet teal eyes.

"Gaara..."

"M-Maria!" Gaara held you in a tight embrace and saw that tears had been streaming down his face. "Maria...are you alright...? I'm not dreaming am I?"

"Gaara...I'm okay. There's nothing to worry about." You hug Gaara back as he stays silent to try and hide his sobs. He had been holding your hand while you sleep. You hear his fast heartbeat quicken. "Gaara, calm down. You don't have to worry anymore. But what happened?" He stayed silent for another small while. A sigh came from your lips as you remembered what happened before you fainted. Then a gasp stopped your lungs and rage came over you.

You stopped hugging Gaara and looked at him straight in the eye after he was able to calm down enough. You glared at him, making him gasp as you talked to him in an angry tone. "Why did you stop me from killing him? That was my chance to destroy that creep! Why did you have to stop me? He killed that boy because you held me back." You pushed him back and his hair covered his eyes, he took his hands away from you but you still saw his falling tears. "Gaara, that's my only reason to live. I have to kill my father that killed my mother by controlling me. I need my revenge from that bastard... Nothing else matters to me than that!" Gaara slowly got up. He took a step towards the door but stopped to look back at you with too much sad emotion.

"I'm sorry..." was all he said. Then he continued to walk. He left the room and you felt horrible. 'I didn't...mean it like that...', you thought. You got out of the bed with a few troubles and went out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. You saw Temari and Kankuro talking. Gaara wasn't there.

"T-Temari! Where's Gaara?" Temari glared at you darkly and said:

"He went to Yamaraha Pond. It's the only pond in Suna. Be warned, you made him mad, I wouldn't say anything more to him until he's calmed down."

Without nothing more than a t-shirt and pants, you went searching for the pond. You let your senses take over and you found the pond quite quickly.

You saw Gaara lying down near the pond with a few tears on his face. He was looking blankly at the sky. You ran toward him and he turned to his side so that you couldn't see his face. "Gaara..." You bent down and touched his shoulder and he turned around slowly. He averted his eyes."Gaara, forget what I said before, alright? I'm sorry. I didn't mean it..."

"If you didn't mean it then why were you so angry? With so much emotion...don't say your lying. You weren't." He sat up with a sigh after looking in your eyes. He put his back to you.

"Gaara... But why did you stop me? I could've stopped him from hurting anyone ever again."

"You said you would kill yourself after killing him... This is selfish, but I don't want to see you hurt. I want to see your smile. Everyday. I don't want to see you in the cold ground among other dead bodies. Please don't...leave me. I can't live without you...I just can't. The only way I've survived up until now was knowing you were alive. Please don't destroy yourself. You're keeping me alive, Maria..." You were speechless and hugged him from behind. He grabbed your hand softly and tried pulling it away from him. You didn't let go and then said:

"I'm making a promise to you, since you kept yours. I will never leave you...I'll always be with you no matter what. We are the only two that can understand each other, so lets stay together... I'm sorry I made you worry so much. And I'm sorry about getting mad. I'm sorry." Gaara looked back at you and saw tears. You rubbed away the tears and put your hand over his. "But I don't want to hurt you!" You sobbed out that you didn't want to hurt him, but being Shimo No Maria would make it hard not to hurt anybody. Gaara turned around and tried to smile as his heartbeat quickened. He caressed your cheek and rubbed away some tears.

"Please promise one more thing... And please don't cry. No matter what you do, you can't really hurt me. But...please don't use whatever you did when you're still healing. You were practically dead for a month. I don't want to see that ever again. I wouldn't believe you were dead. It just didn't seem right...so please don't do it." A warm wind blew around the pond and you looked into his eyes sadly. He had a real smile on now. "'Kay?"

You hugged Gaara tightly and buried your face in his chest. He laughed and embraced you in his arms. Your tears continued, you couldn't help it even though you tried not to. "I promise!" Suddenly, you felt a presence behind some bushes. Then a boy around 14 came out and criticized Gaara.

"Oh...so Gaara finally got a girlfriend. You wouldn't think it was possible with his kind of attitude. But maybe there are freaks that cry themselves to sleep like him as well. *sigh* Who knew?"

Gaara grabbed your arms tightly and you stopped sobbing but that doesn't mean the tears did. Gaara glared at the boy. "Shut up, Aiden. She's not my lover. Just...a friend. And if you call her a freak again..."

"Oh god! He's going to get mad and kill me! Maybe the Kazekage would like to hear about all of your threats. Maybe he'll hire Shimo No Maria here to kill _you_." With that, you stopped crying and was about to yell. But Gaara cut in instead.

"She is not Shimo No Maria. A killer like her wouldn't be crying here helplessly! Stop saying lies, I will never believe that. I'll kill you if you say anything more." You said nothing but sniffed. Then it was silent. Until Aiden reminded you of your past.

"Shimo No Maria. Nobody knows what happened to her 1 year ago. Maybe she died. Maybe she was taken in by the Akatsuki. Or maybe she is a sensitive chick that cries a lot. She is the daughter of Orochimaru and a woman named Priscilla. She was a weak child that could hardly stand until she was 5. When she turned 6, something happened to her and she slowly became stronger. She was fragile, born in Rito, and had-or should I say _has_-a special blood limit that lets her control water, ice and mist." Aiden smiled evilly at you as you turned around to see how much he knew. "She has a brother that was named Kaiza but he is supposedly dead. At the age of 6, she killed her mother because she was controlled by Orochimaru. she went to Konoha and learned from Kakashi Hatake-Copy Ninja. He taught her everything he knew and she is stronger than all the Kage put together. At 7 she had already killed around 110 people. She showed talent as a killer. She turned into chuunen at age 7 and when she turned 7 and a half, she turned into a jounen. Shimo No Maria had killed 500 or more people at that time. When she turned 9 she went to an organization, that is now disbanded, and she turned into a silent killer, killing almost 40 people every week. They taught her ancient and restricted techniques. One day at the age of 12, she went to the Hokage. She told him and Kakashi to change her back to a genin and they did. She went to back to Rito thinking that her father was a man named Izaku, and stayed with the abusive father until Orochimaru came and attacked the village. She tried to save the village but everyone died and then she wandered off into the desert, only to collapse. By the time she arrived in Suna, she had killed more than-"

"Stop it!" You couldn't hold it in anymore and you threw an ice dagger past Aiden, it scratched his cheek as you weren't planning to hurt him much. You stood up and appeared behind him and threw him to the ground. "Stop it! Who cares if it's my past or someone else's, no one needs to know of my past or who killed my mother!" Aiden smirked and continued his interrupted sentence.

"She had killed more than 7000 people and she continues from the boy last night that she stabbed-making it 7001." Your hands moved rapidly and you threw icicles at Aiden's sides. They penetrated his skin and he screeched loudly making bats come out from above the trees. They flew off and he said: "Itachi is here at the moment. If you plan on killing me, you will be dead as well."

"Like hell I will! He couldn't kill me if he tried." You kicked him over and released the poison that was inside the icicles. "This poison will make your body numb for the next few days. You will sleep for a week and wake up as you did today, forgetting everything you ever knew. Now run away before you cry with pleads before a painful death." But he didn't move before he said:

"You have always been watched by the Akatsuki. And you will always be watched no matter what the time, or where."

You were silent and fell to your knees. Aiden disappeared in the wind and you couldn't look at Gaara with him knowing your past. The demon seal on your back began to burn, you grabbed your shoulder and got your feet. Gaara took your hand and walked with you for a while then questioned you.

"How much of what he said was true?"

You glared and mist filled the area. "How would you like it if I asked why you claimed to know me? Or do want me to ask why you said that you were in need of love?"

He glared back at you. "Don't change the freaking subject. Tell me the truth."

"You don't need to _know_ the fucking truth! Now shut up and leave me alone!" You turned to walk away and he grabbed your hand. You slapped him and put poison ice in his bloodstream. "Don't touch me! I said leave me alone and don't ask about my goddamn past!" Your eyes had blood lust. You walked away and Gaara went the opposite way.

You walked into an old park. 'If even he doesn't understand...then no one will.' You thought. You sat down on a swing. Tears fell down your face and you went scarlet. The smell of rain came as you saw drop fall from the sky. 'At least no one will see me cry, not that they would care...' You thought miserably. A glimmer came from the corner of your eye, a sharp knife was stuck in the gravel. You went and picked it up, then went back to the swing. You feel release as the knife glides over your wrists. You feel no pain and listen to running liquid accompany the dark flowing out. You are forced by your sad soul to watch the knife drain blood out of your body. 'I hurt Gaara...' was all you thought as this commenced. You took the knife in your hands, gripped tightly, pointed toward your heart, you speak. "If nobody understands, then they obviously won't care if I...die."You thrust the knife to your heart...

You might have died if you felt the pain, but you didn't. Instead, the scent of blood. But not yours. You opened your eyes to see a pale arm with blood dripping. A struggling voice says... "You better not do that again. Please don't ever try that again!" You looked up slowly and a tear fell onto your cheek. You recognize the person by their voice.

"Gaara...leave me alone. Stay away from me." Gaara is shocked and scared. You get off the swing and walk anywhere but here. footsteps come into hearing as you near the edge of the park, but you keep moving. As soon as you step on the edge, you regain feeling at your waist. Warm arms bring another's body to brace yours. "Gaara. Get away unless you want to die... I don't care what you have to say, I live only to kill, and that's like being dead anyway." Gaara held you tighter, and held his grip. "Get off. Too many have died in my site, if I have to kill you I'll go mad." Gaara sighed, rested his head on your shoulder and then said:

"This is all I have to say..." His voice goes into a sad whisper. "Maria, I promise with all my heart...this isn't a lie." He couldn't bring himself to say it, but he sighed again and then said:

"I love you with all my heart..."

One last tear fell from your eye as you said: "That's a lie..."

"Wh-what?"

"You're lying to me. No one could ever love me."

"You're wrong!"

With all of your remaining strength, you turned around and tried to punch him in the stomach. But you slipped and ended up falling into his arms. His soft lips press yours as though they were fragile glass. Gaara holds you as if you are going to break. A cold impending darkness envelopes your body and you see a small light. You run away from it. 'This is death...I don't want it. I want to stay in the living world with Gaara!' You keep running and see a comforting face.

"I'm sorry...Gaara." But you open your eyes and see a white room.

"I'm sorry miss, but I'm not Gaara." You listen for the trancing voice but hear nothing of the sort. "You're in the hospital, you need more rest, go back to sleep." But you somehow knew that voice. It sounded like 'Kato-kun...' to you. You fell asleep almost immediately.

You awoke from a dream of Orochimaru killing people and then telling you to do the same. You do so but are left alone in the world with nothing but darkness. You slowly get out of the hospital bed and walk over to the window. You see the edge of a calm looking forest with light clouds rolling above. You glare out the window. 'I'm sorry for what I did to myself but for Gaara to lie and say he loved me...it just hurts too much and hits too close to home. But...what happened after I tried to punch him? I know something happened but I can't remember what.' You walk to the door not caring much if you are seen. You've been in much worse situations. You look at the bandages on your wrist and rip them off. 'Useless. I heal easily.' You walk out of the hospital and walk toward the forest.

You continued walking until you reached the edge of the trees and saw the desert in the distance. 'I guess I'm still in Suna. I wonder how that boy I met when I was 6 is doing...' You look toward the sky and see thunder clouds. 'No...th-thunder at a time like this? I-I mean, this is the sand village. I'll just move more toward the forest...yeah...' You walked into the centre as fast as you could. Rain began to come down, the droplets started hammering down. In the distance, you saw a rigid gold line attach to the earth. Then a loud bang came and you screamed. "AH!" You fall backwards against the nearest tree and crouch against it. You swing back and forth while repetitively thinking: 'It'll pass, I'll get through this.' You started crying as another bang came, it was getting louder, closer.

You had no idea what time it was, but you had a feeling that it had been close to an hour since the thunder had started. It was still going on and it was ultra close now. It chimed loudly and you screamed so loud you thought the villagers had all heard it. You squeeze your eyes shut but hear a comforting voice.

"Maria, are you scared of-" It went off again and you tried to suppress the screams but failed miserably. "Maria... I'm here, so you don't have to be scared." He reached a hand towards you and you slapped it away and stood up with jelly legs.

"L-leave me alone, Gaara. I'm not worth it-"

"Would you shut up! You're scared as all hell, do you think I'm going to just abandon you like this?"

You stayed silent and then ran in the opposite direction. But you fell to your knees because of the lack of food for a month. Gaara came and grabbed your arm. Your ice scratched him. He bled a little and it fell on your hands. "A killer like me doesn't deserve someone as caring as you. There's nothing left for me though as you lied to me, lied about saying you loved me. You cruel bastard..." He tried making you stand and the ice was poisonous and hit him in his hand. "Let. go. of. me."

You keep feeling tears well up as you see his blood. But something silver went past you and hit the ground. You looked up and saw Gaara's eyes wet with tears He got to his knees and put his hand over yours. "But maria..." He looked you in the eye with his sad green ones. "I...need you..."

You gasp and get closer to his face, his face goes slightly pink. "D-do you really mean that?" You couldn't help asking. If it _was _the truth, then you would stay, but if not,-

"Yes."

Gaara caresses your cheek and gets in closer. A lovely lavender scent fills the small space. He opens his mouth slightly as your lips almost touch. You think: 'He...he's not lying to me. Gaara...' He stops moving and sighs. Then he moves away and you realize your face went fuchsia. 'He was so close to me...' You suddenly hear his voice. "I'm sorry...I-I don't know what came over me..." He has a cerise blush.

"No." You smiled at him nicely. "I'm sorry, you shouldn't be apologizing. I'm sorry about all I said. I just can't stand myself. To be honest, I've always hated myself but that's nothing for you to worry about." You stood up slowly because there was still thunder. You held your hand out to Gaara. He took it and stood up. Thunder crashed so you ran to him and clenched a hand on his chest while burying your face in his clothes. He held you in a hug. You blushed after realizing what happened. "S-sorry, I don't like thunder..." He chuckled a little. There was more thunder, you jumped a little and he put a hand over your head as he saw a few tears come down your cheeks. "I really didn't want to show this side of me to anyone. But it feels okay with you..." You can't help feeling too close to him. A little too much that it's beginning to hurt. You don't want to hurt him.

"Maria," Gaara swept you off your feet and held you bridal style. "You can tell me anything." He began walking back to his house. You don't say anything to him as you're trying to suppress your sobs. But you have no idea why your crying anyway. Both of you soon reach his house. He brings you to his room and puts you on his bed. He goes to his dresser and gets out a shirt and some pants. He sighs a little and blushes a little as he realized you were always watching him. "Ah...sorry, but you'll have to wear guy clothes for the moment." You forgot it even rained because Gaara was with you. It was slowly clearing up but it would still be raining for a few more hours.

"Uh...I'm fine with that..." he brought them over to you and showed you to the washroom. You got changed and then walked back into Gaara's room.

There was a blond girl's voice, which frankly, annoyed you because it was so high. "Oh, Gaara! You've gotten such a good body since the last time I saw you!"

Gaara probably knocked something over as you heard a crash. "Ah, d-don't touch me there! G-get out of my room and leave me alone!" He wasn't wearing a shirt and the girl was pretty much trying to get his pants down.

You turned around and walked out of the room like you saw nothing, though you did say something while laughing. "Wow...looks like I walked in on something." They were silent and Gaara tried getting her away from him and she eventually went out of his window.

"God damn...why won't she leave me alone?" He got his pants zipped back up and then grabbed your hand to turn you around. "Okay, that was not what you think it was."

"Do you _know_ what I'm thinking?"

"No, but that was god damn awkward. I don't even know how much you heard of that." You laughed. He stared at you. "Wh-what are you laughing at?"

You just kept on laughing at him. He looked puzzled and stared at you in an annoyed confusedness. You told him why you were laughing. "You actually think she left like that? She's still looking through the window."

The girl glared at you and spoke. "Hey, who's the girl. She your girlfriend? That's what Aiden told me. And he also told me she was Shimo No Maria. Why would a pretty girl like Shimo no Maria be wearing such ugly clothes? I mean a girl's meant to be wearing girl clothes. Come on! We're getting you some clothes!" She came back into the room and grabbed your hand, but you grabbed Gaara's hand as well so you all ended up in the shopping district of Suna. Gaara was annoyed that you grabbed his hand. Plus, he made you walk in the middle because, well, these were his words.

"You're walking in the middle. I'm not standing next to that rapist." The girl was offended.

"Hey! A little fun is nothing and the name is Taria, you moron! Also, what's her name?" you sighed and did as he said then he answered for you.

"Her name is Maria Kiri." Taria bought you some clothes but you still wore the guy ones. They're somehow more comfortable. At least the rain stopped. Once you guys finished, she left you be and you were left with 3 bags of clothes. You were a annoyed and took most of them to a charity shop.

You glared at the floor as you walked back with Gaara. But about half way there you took his hand and teleported back to his room. Yes, you can teleport. Gaara was shocked and also annoyed as he had to go out in public without a shirt on. In unison you both glared at each other and said:

"I hate her."

You both started laughing after that. Temari came into the room and saw the two of you laughing like idiots. She was stunned. "Looks like you made up. And...Gaara...is laughing? Kankuro!" Temari and Gaara's brother came into the room as well and saw him laughing. He started screaming around the room and the both of you stopped laughing and stared at Kankuro, Temari was too. She knocked him over and dragged him out. "Sorry. That was just a little surprising to see Gaara smiling at all..." They left the room. Gaara and you just burst out laughing again. It soon subsided.

"Oh jeez, what was that?" He asked rhetorically.

The rest of the night was relatively calm and Temari decided to make dinner for everyone. You ate too much and could barely make it too the stairs. You were over exaggerating your 'fatness'. You flopped onto Gaara's bed and sighed. After an awkward quiet dinner, you see Gaara come into the room. You see a small purple rabbit on his dresser. You don't know how you missed it before. "Momo!" You jumped off of the bed and grabbed the rabbit. You grabbed Gaara and pushed the rabbit in his hands. "How did you get Momo?" You asked him excitedly. He had a confused look in his eye but he answered.

"I've had it since I was 6 years old."

How old are you anyway? I'm 12."

"I am as well."

"So, how did you get Momo?" Gaara sat down on his bed and told you to as well. You did and took back Momo. He explained.

"When I was 6 years old I was watching these kids play with a ball. They didn't want me to play with them because of my power. I was sad but then some girl from another town came into Suna and her mother told her to go play with those kids and she said she would but instead she came to me. She had black hair in a fringe and up to her shoulders in the back. She asked 'What are you doing here alone?' I was surprised she even talked to me. I told her that the other kids didn't like me." Gaara paused as he saw your surprised expression. "Anyway, she also asked about a stuffed panda I had. I said 'I dropped it.' but the other kids took my panda from me. The panda was all ripped up so she handed me that purple rabbit. She specifically said 'Here, you can have Momo! Take care of her for me!' She smiled and gave me a hug. I hugged back and told her my name and she told me her name was 'Maria Kiri'. But all that you told me was that your name was Maria. Anyway, after that, she had to go and I saw that her mother had some medicine for her lungs. The girl called me her friend. And I remembered her ever since then because I knew I would meet her again. And I did."

You were stunned as you saw his reminiscing eyes. That was how he was staying alive. "Gaara," You began, "that was me." You hugged Gaara tightly and he gasped. "I was wondering how that kid was doing. I didn't realize it was you. I thought that your name was common or something. But I guess it really was you..." Gaara put an arm around you as you clenched your hand on his chest. "It really was you. I can't believe I didn't realize it. I'm sorry but at least I have you now!" You smiled and looked up at him. He couldn't keep and straight face and started blushing. He pushed you off him and stood up. He backed away and leaned against his wall with a hand trying to cover up his blush. You just kept smiling at him.

He shook his head and then some words escaped his lips. "Your smile is just so... cute..." You suddenly remembered something. You remembered that you put a fatal poison in his bloodstream. You got up and walked toward him. You dropped the rabbit. You grabbed his hand, kept him against a wall and told him to be still. Inside your head you thought the words: 'Let me see, what poisons there be.' You warned him of a little pain and he was confused but braced himself a little. You bit his neck after growing small fangs.

"Maria! Wh-what are you doing?" Biting him filled you with pleasure and him too but you sucked a small amount of blood out of his system as you also took out the poison ice that had turned to liquid. His eyes showed that he was getting drowsy. But you kept him awake by digging deeper with your fangs. "M-Maria..." He wouldn't let you pull away so before he tried kissing, you hit him in the chin and jumped back to land on your feet and one hand. 'He was getting too into the feeling... It's not a good thing that causes him to feel that way.' You thought anxiously about what he would try to do next, but instead he simply slid down the wall with closed eyes while grabbing his neck. He clenched the floor with a fist. "M-Maria, what did you do?" 'Unfortunately, if it's the right person, it can make me feel like that too. But why does it have to be him?' you thought again.

"Gaara, think nothing of that. It was only to get the poison out. But unfortunately, I didn't get all of it out. So I'll have to do that again. So calm yourself first." He opened his eyes. They showed lust. And it wasn't blood lust. "Maybe I'll just do it tomorrow." He shook his head and his eyes showed innocence.

"I'll be fine. I'm not going to try anything." You sighed and got back up, you put a hand to the artery in his neck.

"The way your blood's pumping doesn't say that."

"I said I'll be fine." You took Gaara's hand and threw him onto his bed.

"Well, just in case, I'm putting you in a better position. Now stay calm and try to think nothing of what I'm doing. It'll be worse this time...but try not to do anything." Gaara removed his hand from his neck and left it to his side. You bent over him and put your hands around his side. You didn't lie directly on top of him because that would cause problems. You lowered your mouth to his neck and bit extremely hard. He began moaning right away, it made you feel the need to as well, but you resisted. 'Damn it. It's _a lot_ worse this time. I didn't expect it to be this bad!' You searched for the rest of the poison and found the rest of it. But before you could take it out, Gaara grabbed your shoulder and was pulling down the sleeve. It was also making your shirt go lower. If you moved your hand to stop him, you would be directly on top of him. He kept on moaning and moving so you took away one hand and slapped his. But he wouldn't stop. You got the rest of the poison out. You couldn't hide it anymore and began moaning. Gaara grabbed your shirt with closed eyes. That snapped you out of it and you jumped away and kept you leaned against the wall. You pulled the shirt back up and saw Gaara gripping his bed sheets. "Gaara...you have to calm down, you were affecting me..." Gaara took in a breath and nearly stopped gripping the sheets.

"I'm sorry...but it was just...too strong of a feeling..." He sat up slowly and his eyes showed great lust for you. You hunched your shoulders forward and held the front of the shirt. He turned around so that you wouldn't see his eyes. "I'm being serious here. If you don't calm down soon, this won't be a good friendship for the moment. You're affecting me too much, Gaara." Your heartbeat got faster when you said his name. "Gaara, seriously. You've got to stop, and calm yourself..." You moaned after saying that.

"If you don't stop saying my name then it'll be kind of hard. You're the one causing me this feeling with your voice." You stayed silent and your heartbeat got slower.

"Sorry. I didn't know you would react that way... Most people don't, I assumed you wouldn't either. It's sort of my fault for letting you feel that." Gaara got up and told you to go to bed. He said that he would be on the roof.

You climbed into his bed after he went out of his window. You started blushing as you remembered his scent. 'He smells so good...oh no...' You shook your head to stop the thoughts of him, but it didn't work all that great. 'I liked him even before this, was that the reason it affected me so much?' Gaara's blood would soon be neutralized, and you won't feel anymore of what he feels. You began to shiver as you realized that you shouldn't have done that but that was the only way to get your poison ice out.

2 hours later

You didn't feel Gaara's blood anymore. It was probably neutralized. You actually can't get to sleep until any blood you take in is neutralized. You got out of bed and grabbed the purple rabbit that you called Momo. You jumped out the window and onto the roof. Gaara was lying on his back looking at waning moon. You put the rabbit over his face. He didn't move for a minute or two and then he took it off his face and then stared at you like you were crazy. "I thought you went to bed." He said slowly.

You smiled and stuck your tongue out. "With your blood neutralizing, do you really think I could sleep?"

"Better put your tongue back before I take it with mine. I'm still feeling a little weird and why did you have to do that?" He looks away from you and back at the stars.

You sighed and lay beside him. "Because...I hit you a few times with ice. It had poison in it, and if you stay with it in your system for too long, you would've died. It doesn't matter how strong you are. I don't want you to die, and you've already saved me a few times. This time it was my turn."

"You do realize that if you left anymore inside me, I don't know what I'd do this time."

"Yeah, I know that. But I really didn't know you were going to react that way." You stared at him and he looked into your eyes. You thought slowly 'I actually did leave some, but I couldn't let him feel that for too long.'

He tried not looking in your eyes but it was a failed attempt. "Maria, I want to tell you something. But I don't know how you would react."

Your eyes closed just as you blurted out that you were trying to hide. "Your voice is too trancing for me..." You started blushing and then cleared it up-sort of. "You didn't hear anything!" You were about to look up at the stars too but then Gaara kept you facing him. He moved his face close to yours and then kissed you softly. Your eyes closed and you kissed back. You both realized what happened and you sat up as he stayed down. "Gaara..." Your heartbeat was so fast that you had to grab your chest to calm down. "Gaara..." You just couldn't slow down your heart beat. You were speechless and were blushing again. "Did you really just..."

Gaara was silent and looked at you with eyes of all emotion. "I...yeah...I did. And I'll do it again." You had no idea what to think. He brought you down again and kissed you again and asked for entry to your mouth. You let him and kissed back.

You backed up. "Gaara... What are you thinking...?" You edged away from him a little bit, but he grabbed your hand.

"I don't know. I've wanted to for so long. It just happened... I let myself go and now I killed the friendship, I guess. I'm sorry, I just lose myself around you..."

"Believe me," you laughed a little, "You aren't the only one." You thought slowly. 'But at least I try to control myself. Or do I?'

"I'm not sure we can last as friends." You looked at the moon and he did too.

"Then maybe something more?" You were dissing yourself in your head. 'Why did I have to say that. I'm so stupid!'

You looked in each others eyes for a while and then Gaara smiled brightly. "I want to be something more..." He whispered. You both blushed and he looked at the stars again. "You should get some sleep. It's already midnight." You would've moved but you were already sleeping by his side. That spell knocked you out, but you would be fine by the morning. Gaara brought you back to his room and put you inside his bed. He smiled and then went back up. Sadly, you didn't get that much sleep.

1 hour later

You woke up with a stinging pain in your head. It was like needles were being pushed inside. You were being stupid. You weren't supposed to use your powers at all. But you weren't going to let him die.

You heard a bang on the roof and teleported there. All you saw was a note. It said:

"_Hey, Gaara! That Marie girl isn't in your room anymore. We took care of her. She's with me and Aiden. You'd better come and get her before anything bad happens to her. We're at Yamaraha pond. Come and get your girl! _

_ Sincerely,Taria_"

You were honestly very mad. You started running to the pond while thinking. 'He'd better be alright. If they do anything to him... Without him I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have been smiling a while ago. He must have been through more than me. I think that he's the Kazekage's son. Gaara said everyone called him a monster, and mom told me that the Kazekage called his own kid monster. I can't stand anybody that thinks like that!' You kept running and finally reached the forest where the pond was. After finding the pond you are out of breath and punch yourself in the neck on purpose. You coughed up Gaara's blood and wiped it off your lips. 'Now that it's out of my system, the poison should be gone.' You wiped the blood on the shirt you're wearing and then keep going. You hear voices.

"Where the fuck is she?" You recognize the furious voice as Gaara's.

"Fine. Fine. But you're not fun. Come here and I'll tell you. I don't want Aiden to find her and hurt her. Do you?" You recognize this high voice as Taria.

"Just tell me!" Taria screamed and you saw sand in a clearing. You saw Taria smirk at Gaara. You heard shuffling and you think: 'What does she have to gain by doing thi-' You realized at that moment. It was meant to make you hate Gaara. And it sort of worked. What you saw was shocking. You saw Taria and Gaara near a shimmering pond, with flowers all over the place. Tears came down your face, not from the beauty of the pond. But... Taria and Gaara standing together with closed eyes..._kissing_...

_End of Chapter 3 ~ Quick Regret_


	4. Chapter 4 Passionate Hearts

_Chapter 4~ Passionate Hearts_

Your head hurt from all of the thoughts. Tears made their way to the ground from your eyes. Taria and Gaara stopped kissing and she smirked at you as her words burned you. "So sorry Maria... But he's mine now!" She laughs but Gaara pushed her away from him and looks at you with sadness taking over his eyes. His eyes also show fear.

He speaks slowly. "Maria... Maria, it's not what you think. She's lying to you!" He reaches a hand out to you but you back up and put a hand to your chest and start to tremble.

You squeeze your eyes shut attempting to stop the tears, but no such thing happens. Your tears still drop on the emerald grass. "Gaara, you're lying..." You keep walking backwards as Gaara begins to approach you.

"Maria!"

"No!" You start to run. Thoughts keep coming. 'I can't believe this! I thought he wasn't lying... why can't people ever tell the truth? It hurts so much. Being betrayed, it seems like I always am. I hate this... And just a little while ago I realized that he was the one that I loved. That's just great, now isn't it? But... he said that he didn't like her. Yet they...-' You tripped over a stone as you weren't really concentrating on where you were going. You saw a small glimmering river and decided to go for a swim. You began to think again. 'Well then, they did a great job making me hate Gaara. He's a good liar. I'm not staying here any longer, even if I do love him. I make no sense at all. I love him but I hate him. How stupid. I'll go to Konoha and go make Hokage change me back to assassin then I'll join the Akatsuki.' You jumped out of the water, dried off and then teleported to Gaara's room. 'Let's see..." You thought, 'the necklace and picture was around where Momo was. So, the dresser.' You grabbed your butterfly necklace and the picture of your mom and put it back in the sack that was also on the dresser. You also saw a necklace of a heart. It was a magnet that could be split in two. It is probably his. You took it in your hands and held it delicately. In your heart you couldn't deny that when you were little you also remembered him. You thought of him everyday and it was him that kept you going. You were keeping each other alive. Just knowing that made a few tears fall, but you shook your head and put it back on the dresser. Without another thought, you jumped out his window and looked for the best place to get out of Suna. You chose to go back through the forest. But you weren't willing to leave without a piece of him.

You went back into his room and grabbed one half of his heart necklace and tied it around the butterfly one. You sighed and then headed back toward the forest. The whole time you looked at your feet and then you put the necklace on without really realizing it. You began walking with your eyes closed. Your eyes felt dry from the many tears. You bumped into something, you backed up and steadied yourself. Right in front of your eyes, you saw it again. Taria and Gaara. You cussed and then punched Gaara in the cheek. As you hit him, you felt something wet. It was tears. You were shocked as he tripped you over to make you land on him. He began sitting up as you tried pushing away. A glare took your angry eyes, but Gaara wouldn't let you go.

"Gaara, I'm leaving! Let me go, you can stay happily with your girlfriend-!" The words just sort of slipped from your mouth. You wanted to say something else, but your words were stopped by Gaara's lips. Your eyes widened as Gaara grabbed your arm and took your heart. Something came over you, making you stop resisting. Gaara stopped and left you leaning against a tree with tears coming again. He stood up and slapped Taria. Once he glared at her, she was scared and began to run away. But he grabbed her wrist tightly.

"Don't you ever touch me again!" Yelled Gaara. His back was to you but you could feel his anger. Suddenly, you saw Gaara's arm turn to a strange sand color and it became floppy with strange marking on it. At that moment, you realized what the demon inside him was. He has one of the tailed beasts inside him. Shukaku. You shook your head and then it was gone. "Leave me alone. Don't ever speak to me. You'll regret it. I'm not yours, I never was and I never will be. The only person I need is right over there." Taria began to struggle, but Gaara kept her there so he could yell one last thing. "Leave before I do something rash!"

You run a hand through your hair and then put your head in your hands to try stop the tears. Taria ran off but Gaara stayed and turned around. Trying to stop tears weren't your strong suit. You kept batting at the tears but they only got worse. The air took you and then you were put back down near a pond. You leaned against a tree and then something warm was embracing you. You pushed it away with a sad voice. "Gaara...don't..." was all you could get out. He questioned it.

"Don't what? We made a promise that we would never leave each other." He held you closer and you didn't resist. "I'm just keeping the promise... Now listen to me. Let me explain what you saw."

Anger crossed you again. You pushed him away with a strong force, it made Gaara fall into the pond. He grabbed the edge and jumped back out. He took off his gourd and put it to his side. You shoot him a glare with tears still falling. "Why should I listen to you? I _know_ what I saw." Your hair covers your eyes as you continue. "It hurts..." You squeaked out what it felt like to see him kissing her. A strong voice echoed through the area.

"Maria, listen to me!" The voice made you look up into green eyes that held you fixed. Gaara grabbed your chin and put a hand over your mouth. The next thing you knew, you were being held against the tree by sand. Your eyes widened with surprise. "Maria," He spoke slowly as he took his hand away and sat in front of you. "I'm not letting you leave until I'm done. You're hearing my side of this... I thought I was being gullible by letting them take you away. My first reaction was to go get you back. But by the time you came, Taria sort of..." You cut him off.

"Kissed you and you couldn't resist? Just because she has a name like mine..." You closed your eyes and tried to relax in your small space.

Gaara tensed up and looked at you with a sadness that made you clench your teeth to stop from tearing up even more. "I didn't kiss her." was all that came from his mouth as he got rid of the sad expression. He became blank, you couldn't read him. "She kissed me. I couldn't move but I wanted badly to get away from her to go look for you. Just knowing your personality, you would try leaving. But I don't want that to happen. I won't let you go remember...?" Gaara's hair covered his eyes. He was trying to cover up his emotions but all signs pointed that he was getting depressed. He continued. "Once I realized that you were there, I wanted to let myself go. But instead I just wanted to run after you and tell you the truth. I knew you would think the opposite of what really happened. After you ran off, I told her I would forgive her as long as she helped me find you. She said yes and followed me, not helping at all but I didn't see that. All I was focused on was looking for you. I was so annoyed that I didn't realize your presence in the area but Taria did and then she decided to do it again." He looked up with tears forming in his eyes. "You would hate me..."

You broke the sand keeping you around the tree. You crawled over and hugged him tightly. "Stop it!" You screamed at him. "Stop it... I believe you already, so stop it. I don't want to see you like this..." Gaara was silent and you felt his tears fall onto your neck. You felt his arms pull you to him. His body moved as if he was sobbing but there was no sound. He was trying to hide it. Both you rested your head on the others shoulder. You continued to talk. "I'm sorry. I just assume things too quickly. But even if it gets worse enough and I leave, we'll both be together anyway. I'll keep you in my heart if you keep me in yours. So stop crying..."

"Why are you saying all this?" He asked between silent sobs.

"I...love you. That's why."

It was silent for minutes. The minutes dragged on and made it feel like hours. Days. Forever. Eternity. He still had tears so you grabbed his cheek and kissed his lips. You pushed your tongue into his mouth and his skin began to get warm. He backed away a little but you followed making him fall to his back. You kept kissing him and he eventually kissed back. It was enough to stop his tears though, so you were smiling inside but the only thing that showed was a red blush on his face and yours. "Maria..."

"I'm not letting you be sad. We're always going to be together aren't we? I don't want to see your tears." You let yourself fall on top of him. You listened to his heart beat, it was hard and fast. You kept your hand lightly on his shoulder. "I'm not letting you go either, Gaara." His heart beat got quicker.

"Maria..." Gaara whispered. "I love you as well..." You smiled and he did too. You didn't move. Neither did he. The both of you simply stayed that way for a while but you heard a gasp after an hour or two.

It came from the forest's direction so you moved a little to hear better. There was a sort of preppy, happy female voice and an equally happy male voice that whispered: "Don't they look cute together? This is the only person that came make Gaara happy or feel any emotion... Looks like they made up then."

You smiled and then rolled off of Gaara. You kept a hand on his chest as you sat up. You whispered softly to the smiling boy. "Your brother and sister are here. Shall I stay here and let them watch or can I tell them to go?"

Gaara smiled at you and simply said, "You can do what you feel like. I'm too ecstatic to do anything at the moment."

You got up and walked toward his brother and sister. They looked up and you with fearful expressions. You smirked at them then spoke. "Gaara says go. He doesn't want you watching." They got up and then Temari smiled at her smiling brother near the pond. She looked back at you and then whispered:

"Keep him happy at least. We didn't even know he had emotion before he met you again."

"Hey! I heard that!" You looked behind you and saw Gaara sitting up, smiling at his brother and sister. Weird for a family moment. Temari and Kankuro left with a wave and you went back to Gaara. You sat in front of him. Gaara took your chin a gave you a quick kiss with his marble lips. You smiled as he kissed you then he got up and gave you his hand to bring you up and well.

You began walking back to his house. He held your hand and you squeezed his hand tightly for a playful mood. Once you won a little game, you stuck your tongue out and he smiled. You didn't talk much after Temari and Kankuro left. But just being side by side was more than enough. You reached his house after a little while and you felt his arm around you as you fell asleep. You were happy and felt that, even though your mother was gone, maybe this time...you could live happily. She was gone, but you were happy. The first time since you were six. And you made someone else happy, so it was good to be alive. Alive with Gaara.

A week went by and you were awoken by shaking. It was none other than Gaara. He spoke in an annoyed tone. "I poked you for a freaking hour and you still didn't wake up. Come on!" You didn't open your eyes, but you squeezed them tighter and nibbled on his finger softly while talking with a groggy voice.

"What time is it...?"

"Twelve. Come on...you've slept enough. Besides, I have somewhere I have to go to."

"You can't blame me, you know I like to sleep for long hours." You opened your eyes and stopped nibbling on his finger. He got up and then you heard the door close after a few minutes. You nearly fell back asleep but something cold dripped over you, and then it soaked you. You changed your tone of voice a little and then glared at Gaara. Who was holding a bucket. "You...bastard!" You jumped out of the bed and glared at him in an annoyed way. But you nearly fell over as you were still tired. You steadied yourself and then began walking over to the guy that threw a bucket of water on you. As you walked, he got some clothes out of his dresser and then right before you decided to give him a punch he put some clothes in your hands.

"Maria of the _Frozen_ Blood can deal with it for a small while, can't she? Just get changed and I'll tell you some things you need to know." He put his tongue out at you and you got on your tip-toes and bit it.

"Shut it. Don't use nicknames, Gaara of the _Sand._" You stuck your tongue out and and then walked away toward the washroom to change. Once you stepped in and closed the door, you heard Gaara's voice from outside the door.

"You didn't have to bite me. Just having a little fun..." You rolled your eyes and grabbed the towel to dry off and then you got changed into his clothes. "And I don't see why you don't wear girl clothes. You weirdo."

"Hey, guy clothes are comfy. Especially yours, they have your scent." He didn't retaliate but stayed silent as you changed. You came out and saw Gaara against the wall opposite with a small blush. You raised an eyebrow. "What are you blushing for? All I said was that I like your scent. There's nothing wrong with that." You laughed at him as he blushed more.

He rolled his eyes and you began walking down the stairs to get breakfast. You made simple cereal as you don't really care much for cooking in the morning. Gaara came down and had the same thing. He began to explain about what he wanted to tell you. "Okay, so I need to take an exam in Konoha soon. I'm leaving today. Temari and Kankuro have already left for it... I was willing to be late since you only would have gotten a few hours of sleep as I was going to leave six hours ago. I'm taking the chuunen exam and I don't know if you're a genin or not." He had a weird look in his eye. It seemed as if he was hiding something but you let it go.

A sigh left your lips as you finished your breakfast. You cleaned up as you answered to whether you were a genin or not. "I'm a genin, again. Also, all of what Aiden said about me was true. I am at the rank of S-rank criminal because of my assassinations. And I _did _kill 7001 people." You paused and looked at Gaara with a slight glare. "I don't want you to tell anyone." Gaara looked at you with a returned glare.

"I'm not going to do anything you don't want me to, okay?" He said slowly.

You sigh again and stop glaring at each other. "Thanks. Oh, and just so you know," You were hesitant to say anything about the poison, but you decided it was best. "there's still some poison I couldn't get out..." Gaara started choking on air as he was about to take a large breath. He calmed himself down and then his eye started twitching as he replied:

"Why didn't you tell me that before...?"

"I didn't know how you would react."

Gaara finished and cleaned up as well. "Does that mean you're going to have to do that thing again?" You rolled your eyes.

"Yeah." Gaara suddenly got a nose bleed. "Gaara..." He put a hand to his nose and you hit him in the head. "You idiot." You muttered. He walked upstairs to stop the nose bleed. After cleaning up, you walked up to Gaara's room. He was putting his gourd onto his back with a white band.

Gaara went over to his dresser and grabbed the other half of his heart necklace. He didn't seem to notice that half of the magnet necklace was gone. He put it in his pocket and turned around with a neutral expression; it was almost like he had no emotion. It made you think of the killer that disappeared one year ago. But it was a sad killer. But Gaara's expression brightened up when he saw that you were there. "A-are you ready to go yet?" He asked with a stutter. You were silent. All that was in your mind were scenes of you killing. The silent killer: Maria of the Frost, Shimo no Maria. Maria of the Frozen Blood, Shimo Ketsueki no Maria. The killer had no emotion. She felt no sympathy for those she killed, she just wanted to kill for fun. It was her amusement. Or maybe she killed to become stronger because she needed to kill someone that had killed someone close to her.

You watched him come closer to you, but it was like slow motion. It took too much time. Without realizing it, you ran forward and hugged Gaara and whispered out some words. "Don't turn out like me. Don't have that expression and turn into the killer I was!" Your arms slowly released as you looked up into his eyes. Gaara looked shocked and then smiled a real smile to reassure you.

"Whatever gave you that idea? Now come on, we need to go to Konoha... I'm not going to do anything like that, don't worry." Your eyes narrowed as you began to look down.

"Sorry, I'm just a little... I don't want to go back there... I especially don't want to see you become that way, because you're like me. Just promise me not to kill."

"I promise."

After a bit of a tense moment of quiet, you began to walk to Konoha. During that time of walking, you let your thoughts take hold of you. 'I won't sleep tonight since Gaara doesn't sleep and I don't want to be a burden to him. After all, being a ninja and all, I just asked him for something that was nearly impossible. All I have to do is keep on walking.' Gaara was walking in front of you but then he slowed down so that you were beside him. He held your hand and continued to walk without any words. Then you remembered something. You saw the scene like a movie.

Gaara had caught you after you tried to hurt him. He held you close and kissed you with his smooth lips. You feel death come upon you and try to run. The next thing you saw was a white room. and then you were back in reality.

You simply stared at him and then he just stopped walking. He stuck his tongue out at you and then held your hand. "Let me guess," He began. "you just remembered what happened after you tried kicking the crap out of me, right?" He smiled at what he said.

"Well... yeah. I did. So, why do you think it was that which I remembered?" You asked slowly.

He leaned into your face and smirked at you. "It's because I just remembered, and because your blushing." He kissed you softly and then continued walking. "Come on little kitty, you're going to follow me." He spoke to you as if you were a small child, but he was also playing with you. You followed after rolling your eyes at him. The both of you walk hand in hand until the sky gets dark. Night time comes and you can hardly walk in a straight line. A yawn comes from your mouth and lasts for almost 3 minutes. Gaara sighs and then slows down for you. "You know," He says slowly to make sure you're listening. "You can just go to sleep, I can carry you you until morning." Once you finish yawning, you squeeze his hand and look up into his eyes while whispering.

"N-no! I don't want to slow...you down..." But you let go of his hand and fell to the sand. 'Seems like I'm losing my endurance.' You think as you lie with your eyes closing. The blowing wind came as Gaara picked you up and began to walk as you fell asleep in his warm arms.

When you awoke from your slumber, you were on a forest floor near a river. You slowly open your eyes, look toward the water and see Gaara washing his face. The sun was blinding with its light. You groaned and unsuccessfully, tried to block it out. You heard the trancing voice that you loved waking up to. "Good morning, Maria." Gaara made his voice soft as he got up from the river to come to you. Gaara caressed your cheek and leans over you to say, "You can sleep a little longer. I don't mind since we're nearly at Konoha. Go back to sleep." He smiled at you but you slowly got up and hugged him. You leaned your head on his shoulder and his on yours.

You were hardly conscious of your words. "I would rather stay in your arms than sleep alone..." His voice made you say the truth all the time. It was hard for you to avoid. He smiled at that but stayed silent.

After a little while, you decided to get going as you realized something. Someone had been watching you. You reached Konoha's gates within the hour and then saw a boy with a hood over his head with a white dog walking beside him obediently. The boy was from the Inuzuka clan. You nearly ran into Konoha but Gaara pulled you back and shook his head. You nodded as you saw that you he needed to show a pass so that he could get into Konoha. You simply showed them your head protector to show them who you were. After they saw the head protector, fear took their eyes and you walked in with a smile that made them cower. You thought it to be funny.

Once Gaara got into the village, he stopped to take a look at everything. He had a sinister look in his eye, which made him look scary. You grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard to make him lose whatever he was thinking. "Gaara," you released the pressure on his hand and whispered to him. "what was with that look of yours?" He faked a smile and replied.

"What look? I'm fine so lets go look for Kankuro and Temari. They'll be in trouble if I know them..." You looked at his eyes curiously and thought, 'I guess that makes sense, but there's just something making me uneasy about it all.'

Nodding in agreement, you began to look for Gaara's siblings. You saw them up ahead bullying some kid. Gaara rolled his eyes and whispered to you. "Lets go, but be quiet." You followed him as you appeared next to a raven haired boy on a tree branch. Gaara was on the other side of the tree hanging upside down. What made you want to laugh was that the boy beside you didn't even notice you were there. "Kankuro," Gaara began. "put the boy down. You've disgraced our village." You could tell that Gaara was going to get pretty serious if his siblings didn't obey him. Kankuro dropped the boy and another boy about 14 years old with lemon blond hair came to catch him. That boy wore an orange jumpsuit and had brilliant blue eyes. Behind him was a girl with pink hair that wore a red dress sort of thing. You took in the surroundings of Konoha, looked at all the building and tried to get rid of the tense atmosphere with concentration. The boy beside you was holding a rock that had been crushed into dust; Kankuro's hand had a small scratch on it so you assumed that the boy had tried to stop them. The boys' eyes looked familiar... you had seen them before. He wore white shorts with a blue top. The top had a wide collar and on the back was the Uchiha symbol. His hair was jet black and went in front of his face but was spiked up in the back. It hit you just as Gaara started talking once he got down to stand in front of his siblings. Glaring, Gaara slowly turned around after mouthing some words to Kankuro and Temari. "I apologize for these two. Please pay them no mind and we'll be on our way." You nearly cut him off as you put a hand on the shoulder of the boy beside you and asked:

"You're Sasuke... Aren't you?" Gaara had an odd look as his eyes trailed to yours. You couldn't keep your eyes off of the boy and then he finally answered after a few minutes of silence.

"Are you...Maria?" Gaara suddenly turned his head in your direction with wide, curious eyes. Sasuke got down from the tree and stood in front of a pink haired girl and the blond boy. With fascination, you jumped down as well and stood a little way away facing Sasuke. He looked tense.

"Sasuke..." You were speechless. You didn't think you would ever meet him again but you shook your head and tried to act casual. "S-so, how have you been for the last 5 years?" You attempted a smile but it came out as an oh-dear-god-what-am-I-saying look. Sasuke stopped looking tense and put his chin on his fingers as he replied:

"Fine I guess, But damn...you've gotten really cute."

"What the hell did you just say?" You looked back and saw that Gaara had to be held back by Kankuro and Temari. He looked like he wanted to hurt Sasuke, badly. Your cheeks went slightly pink and then you thought to yourself: 'Damn, Sasuke has gotten...really... I can't believe I'm thinking this, but he's gotten really cute as well. Damn.'

"Yeah," You rolled your eyes at Sasuke and then started walking back to Gaara, "thanks, but I have to go now." You started looking into Gaara's eyes and they were slowly getting angrier and angrier. You focused your attention on Sasuke's eyes even though you still faced Gaara. He was looking you up and down and that bothered you a lot. But you let it go and grabbed Gaara's arm and continued to walk away after telling Temari and Kankuro to let him go. Gaara glared at the ground as he walked; he also pushed you away and crossed his arms. You didn't bother asking what was wrong, you would ask him later. Something was coming at your head so you put your hand behind you and caught it without a sweat. "Sasuke, what the hell was that for?" You turned around and saw him glaring at you.

He kept his cool but you could see the anger in his eyes. "Who is that and why did you become an assassin?" You heard gasps from the girl and boy behind Sasuke. Temari pushed in front of you, beamed and asked:

"Mine?"

"No, the guy next to Maria, and I want her full name as well."

Temari looked gloomy then started walking away again with Kankuro. Gaara turned around, glared and then said in a flat voice: "Gaara of the Desert." He clenched a fist and then decided to speak more. "If you even touch Maria-"

"Haha, ignore this weirdo. He's just excited to be in Konoha, that's all!" You interrupted Gaara's words with a laugh and covering his mouth with your hand clamped over his face.

Sasuke smirked and then replied to your comment. "He seems to act like a child. How immature..." Gaara cracked his knuckles and nearly started yelling after throwing your hand back at you.

You shook your head and thought, 'With the touch of a palm, you will become calm.' You put your hand over Gaara's chest and then he slowly fell to his knees. You glared at Sasuke and replied to his unwise comment. "Don't ever call Gaara names, I'll kill you if you do." Sasuke rolled his eyes and then you spoke again. "My full name is Maria Kiri and to answer you, I became an assassin because I have someone I need to kill. Don't make me add another person to my list to kill, you'll regret it."

"Sh-Shimo no Maria?" The pink haired girl yelled; her voice was squeaky and annoying. "Maria of the Frost is Orochimaru's daughter. She killed more that 6000 people and was feared... But, most people think that she is dead and is no longer a threat-"

Without hesitation, you appeared next to the pink haired girl and put a kunai to her neck. "Do not talk of my past. It is not yours to speak of, got it Pinky?" The girl tried to get away but you kept her there as you weren't sure about her way of thinking. Behind you, the boy with blond hair came up behind you and attempted to hit you but you simply let go of the girl and slid away from her. He yelled with ambitious eyes.

"I, Naruto Uzumaki, will make you eat those words! Her name is Sakura Haruno!" You glared at him and walked toward him with dangerous eyes. As he saw your eyes, he began to back away. But then he stood his ground and began whispering: "Kage Bus-" You grabbed his collar, lifted him into the air and then threw him into the ground leaving a dent. You also put a kunai to his neck. As you glared at him, you made him think that you were the most dangerous person in the world.

"Listen, if any of you tell anyone else of my past, I will be forced to kill you." You stopped in front of him and then said, "Your death won't be pretty." You began to walk away as you felt you didn't need to deal with someone as stupid looking as him. "By the way, no matter how many clones you throw at me, I won't die. I have someone to kill so I won't be dying so soon, no matter how strong anybody is."

You turned around and saw Sasuke smirking at you. He had lust in his eyes and then said, "You interest me Maria, come have a match with me later at the training grounds. It'll be fun..." You smirked at him as well. You replied superiorly.

"You only know I'll beat you, but I'll come anyway." You laughed a little and then you all left to go find a place to stay for a while.

Gaara had a serious expression on and you wanted to ask about it but you waited until you got to a hotel and got two rooms since you weren't willing to share with Gaara's siblings. Gaara came into your room just to see what it was like in there as you dropped off the picture of your mother. Gaara put down his gourd in a corner and then began looking out the window with an exhausted look. Probably without realizing it, he kept on running his hand through his hair and sighing.

You grabbed Gaara's hand in the silence and then made him sit next to you on the bed. "Gaara... what's wrong? You're really tense..." You had to ask as his normal habits were gone. Gaara was really reluctant to reply, but did.

"Maria, he said he was interested in you..." Gaara glared at the floor and squeezed your hand. You chuckled a little at his words and then responded.

"It's not like he's going to do anything. He only wants to see what I can do." Gaara suddenly pushed you onto your back and held your cheek.

"Yeah, but you don't know how guys think." Gaara whispered in your ear and then lightly nibbled on it. You put your hand on his chest to get him to stop but he didn't, he only continued. Gaara put his arm over your arm to stop you moving them and he started kissing your lips. Undoubtedly, you didn't resist and let him take your mouth. Gaara put his mouth to the centre of your neck and licked you. You moaned a little and then he stopped himself after another kiss on the lips.

He lay on top of you with his breath on your neck as he whispered to you. But you stopped him before he talked. "Gaara..." You actually didn't know what to say after what he did, you just shook your head to disregard what you were saying.

"I'll _kill_ him if he touches you at all..." Gaara put his arm around your waist. and then you heard the door creak open.

It was Temari and Kankuro, they were holding in squeals. You closed your eyes and then Gaara sat up to say: "What do you want?" to his brother and sister.

Temari smirked and then said, "Gaara's overprotective!" Kankuro chimed in with that comment.

"And he's jealous of that guy she knows!"

Gaara glared at them and then said: "Get out of my site unless you want me to do something rash."

They stopped getting excited and then ran off without closing the door. Gaara got up and then closed the door. You stood up and walked toward Gaara with curious eyes. "Gaara..." He glared at the door and then rolled his eyes. "Gaara." You called again, he didn't respond. You shook your head and decided. 'What the hell is with with him right now? Ugh, in any case, I have to get that poison out as soon as possible so, I guess I'll do it now.'

You pushed Gaara against the wall and then he snapped out of his 'trance' as you thrust your fangs into Gaara's neck. He straight out, went moaning and fell to his knees in submission. After about an hour of trying to find the last remnants of the poison, Gaara simply couldn't take it anymore and pushed you onto the floor and tried to take you. You kept your fangs in his neck and got the rest of the poison out but then Gaara tried to move up your shirt so you pushed him off. Breathing heavily, you curled up into a ball and grabbed your mouth. You felt like you were drowning. You got to your feet and tried to reach the washroom to throw up, but instead you fell onto your side and coughed up the poison onto the floor. After that you blacked out and couldn't move for an hour or two.

Slowly, you opened your eyes to see a white room. You were still breathing heavily and you felt like you had been asleep for days even though it was only a few hours. You suddenly started coughing so you sat up and put your hand over your mouth. Once you removed your hand, you saw blood and thought: 'Damn it... I guess I have to go see him again. I never thought that this would happen. But is there anyone else that can fix my lungs other than Pein?'

You got out of a hospital bed with hatred in your eyes. A sigh came from your lips and then you saw your clothes on a small table next to the bed and saw that you were in white clothes with a now red stain on them. Quickly you changed and then opened the window. You jumped out and realized that your butterfly necklace was gone. Your eyes widened so you jumped back in the room and saw the third Hokage. He held your necklace and swung it on one finger. A glare came from your eyes. Lunging at him, you grabbed your necklace and then jumped onto the window's edge. "Maria, that boy with the gourd is very worried about you. I suggest you go find him. But..." the Hokage paused, "if you are here for the chuunin exams then you'll need a slip to enter it. So here, but please go easy on all of the other genin." The Hokage handed you your necklace and a slip of paper with your name on it, you nodded to him and then jumped out the window. You were on the top floor so people that were passing by gasped and gathered around to see how you survived. You pushed them out of the way and then teleported to the hotel. You walked up to your room and then sat on your bed cross legged and made signs with your hands to do a technique.

Your real body stayed in the hotel room but a replica of you was in a red and black room with a desk and book shelf. A guy also stood there with a replica of himself as well. It was Pein. You glared at him and began what you needed to say. "Pein, it has happened again. I need you to fix up my lungs; I will be at the Akatsuki tomorrow and midnight. So be ready." Pein turned around and glowered in your direction.

"Maria, you better be willing to pay a price for the fix. Take the poison out of Aiden, he is not of much use to us but I won't risk losing another fighter. Be ready for some pain." He smirked and you were about to retort but was shaken where your real body was and the replica was gone. You gasped as you were back in the hotel. You pushed whoever had shaken you and they fell to the floor. You pushed a hand to your head and felt that it was above body temperature. You walked to the washroom and put cold water on your forehead to cool it down a little. You dried your face and then looked in the doorway. Shaking, Gaara glared and walked toward you. You tried to breathe but couldn't take in any air; you coughed into your hand and blood came out. Gaara's eyes widened and he pulled you into a tight embrace.

Without a word, Gaara kept you in a tight embrace. You didn't say anything and kept your eyes closed. After coughing, you were able to breathe; but the breaths were heavy and exhausted. Gaara rested his head on top of yours and couldn't stop fidgeting so he just came out with it. "What happened to you?" He took you by the shoulders and you saw that his eyes were the most worried they had ever been. Smiling to reassure him, even though you partly lied, you dragged Gaara and brought him over to the bed. You sat down and simply replied:

"I have lung problems. It doesn't hurt and nothing bad ever happens so I'll be fine in a little while. Anyway, are you mad one minute, sad the next, and then happy later?" An odd question that needed to be asked. Gaara nodded with curious eyes. "Then that means that I got all of the poison out and you won't die any time soon..." You stopped smiling at him and slowly turned to look at the floor with a glare. You clenched your teeth and without realizing your eyes went black. You cracked your knuckles and the pupil in your eyes became that of a snakes. You shook your head and then immediately stood up and went over to the window. You returned to normal and then you spoke with an angry voice. "I'm going to go get some dinner. See you later." You still glared at the floor and then went out the window and teleported to Ichiraku Ramen. You sat down and then the owner looked at you like a normal customer and then said: "Look here, a customer we haven't had in a long time. What have you been up to Maria?" you grinned at the owner and said:

"Not much, not much. The usual please!" You looked to your left and saw the kid that made you _eat those words _you said about the Sakura girl. He had wide eyes that also had fear. Rolling your eyes, you smiled at him and reassured him. "Hey, Naruto-kun right?" He nodded. "I don't hurt people unless I have a reason to so stop looking so scared." He still looked scared as all hell so you sighed and offered: "I'll treat you to your ramen if you want." Naruto stopped looking scared and then smiled brightly.

"Really? Thanks!" So all you have to do is talk about ramen to get Naruto happy. You glance beside Naruto and see that he has already had 3 bowls of ramen. Sighing, you put up your hand and then ask for another bowl for Naruto.

Once your bowl and Naruto's was ready, you began to eat. For a minute or two you simply stared into it thinking: 'I don't want to see Pein. He's such a jerk... Why did I get drafted into that place when I was 9?' Your thoughts were interrupted with Naruto poking you with ramen in his mouth. He slurped it all and swallowed then had a worried expression. "Uh... why do you look so sad?"

A reminiscing smile took your lips and then you answered. "You should know by now that I don't like talking of my past. But I feel like I could share it with you... as long as you tell me something." There was one thing you had to know about Naruto. He was curious so nodded while slurping his noodles. You smirked as you asked the question. "Are you... the Nine Tailed Fox?" The man that made the noodles for the ramen dropped them and they landed on his foot. Naruto stopped slurping his noodles and looked down with sadness in his blue eyes. But then he grinned.

"I probably am!"

A look of surprise came onto your face and then you grinned as well and gave him a high five. "Heh, I like guys like you! You seem so optimistic!" You kept eating your ramen and then another question came to mind. "Hey, Naruto. How did that girlfriend of yours know about me?"

Naruto blushed and nearly let his head fall into his bowl of ramen. You laughed about it and thought, 'He's silly. Haha, I love people like him... they make people change.' He started screaming out: "S-Sakura-chan isn't my g-girlfriend! She's just a friend!"

"But you protected her name like she was." You were smirking at him, trying to make him fess up.

"She's not... Anyway, what am I supposed to call you? I know your name but-"

"Call me Maria. But please answer my question." He sighed and calmed himself down to answer your question. He blurted it out and put a hand over his head because he thought you were going to hit him.

"We spent a month learning about you and you were in our books!" You had a look that said you weren't amused and he added. "I wasn't there at the time so I didn't learn a thing about it!" You were even less amused. You shook your head and finished up your ramen.

"Anyway, Naruto," You stood up and gave Naruto a smile as you spoke. "did the Uchiha tell you that I'm going to beat the crap out of him? Come watch if you want." You asked sarcastically Naruto grimaced as you asked and screamed out the answer:

"Damn! Everyone just _loves _Sasuke, don't they? Well I'll become the strongest Hokage that there ever was, believe it! Haha... I won't give up even though I'm always told it won't happen..." You burst out laughing after a silence and then grabbed Naruto by the shoulder.

"Haha, I-I'll be waiting for you to become Hokage! And I will believe it will happen, you can do anything you set your mind to!" A smile stayed on your face after the laugh stopped. Naruto grinned and you realized how close your face was to Naruto's. You thought about Gaara's reaction to seeing this, and then you remembered how you felt after Taria kissed him. You took your hand off his shoulder and began to leave Ichiraku Ramen. "Hey, see you around Naruto!" You waved and he waved back with a huge grin on his face.

You couldn't help but think about Naruto's dream as you walked to the training grounds to fight Sasuke. 'Being Hokage... I guess the kid can dream. But I believe that if you work hard enough, it could happen, for anyone. Anyone except an S-rank criminal.'

Once you reached the right part of the training grounds, you saw Sasuke practicing his kunai and shuriken throwing - which was pretty precise. "Hey, Sasuke! I'm here, what exactly do you want to get schooled at?" You couldn't hold back a cocky grin and Sasuke smirked with fire in his eyes as he replied:

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Rolling your eyes, you immediately appeared behind him and held his hands behind his back.

"Looks like you're already losing."

"Yeah, well, not for long." It was a replica. You enhanced your eyes with chakra and could see who the real Sasuke was from 3 options. Sighing, you attacked him for a while using only hand to hand combat. It bothered you that while he was defending against your attacked and attempting to hit you the odd time, he was looking you up and down. Sasuke smirked after a while so you thrust him against a tree and put a kunai to his neck. A replica of him nearly hit you in the back but you had your own replica destroy his. You were laughing inside, you thought, 'As though anyone could really ever beat me... besides father...' Suddenly, Sasuke said something that made you lose your focus. "Damn, you've got a really nice body."

Your eyes widened and you hardly realized that Sasuke took advantage of your surprise and pushed you to the forest floor. Sasuke held both of your hands together and lay on top of you with his other hand for balance on the ground. He leans his face into yours until they're an inch away.

"S-Sasuke, get off me. Wh-what the heck are you doing? Isn't this supposed to be a match or something?" Sasuke brushes his lips against yours and then kisses you aggressively. "Mn?" You try to move your hand but don't succeed. With a smirk, Sasuke lightly puts his hand on your cheek and you move your head to the side and yell: "Sasuke? What the-?" He kisses you again on the neck and you try to roll him off but he's too heavy. Sasuke moves his hand that was on your cheek and slides it down to your chest; you scream and then see something in the corner of your eye. You had the feeling you were being watched by someone as you fought Sasuke. You just didn't know who it was. Until you heard their voice, that is.

"Get the _hell_ off of her!" Tears went down your cheeks but you suddenly felt lighter. Sasuke was being pinned by a tree by sand. With a quick beating heart, you sat up and looked behind you and saw Gaara rushing over to you with a furious expression. Once Gaara reached you, he pulled you into a hug then helped you stand up. Gaara let go of Sasuke and glared while saying: "I should kill him for touching you..." Gaara gave a low growl and then Sasuke smirked at your tears.

"Oh, please. It was just a few kisses. She'll get over it." He had a sarcastic ring to that comment. You clenched a fist and started saying:

"Why did you become this way? The Sasuke I knew was nice..." A few more tears rolled down and hit the forest floor. Gaara wiped them away with his thumb.

Sasuke grunted and mumbled, "Jeez, overprotective. Wait a minute, what is she to you?" Gaara's cheeks went unnoticeable pink and he replied:

"Someone important to me... I _kill_ you if you touch her ever again." You stop your quivering breath long enough to whimper the words:

"Gaara, can we go now...?" Your breaths are short and it's hard for you to move. Gaara picks you up bridal style and has a question in his eye. But Sasuke spoke again and Gaara's eyes turned into a glare. "Fine, I admit it. What I was doing wasn't a joke. Just know that if you lose her, she'll be mine."

"Shut up unless you want to die right here, right now!" Gaara turned his head to give an intense glare to Sasuke. Gaara growled again in a low tone and you gripped his shirt while trying to suppress your tears. Gaara walked for about ten minutes with you and then asked "Maria, what exactly did he do to you?" You simply shook your head and gripped his shirt tighter to tell him you would answer later.

By the time you got to the hotel, it was dark out so Gaara put you down gently on the futon and sighed. Then he bit his lip and started walking to the door. You heard the door nob and then sat up and said: "Gaara, please, I-" Gaara interrupted your words.

"Don't leave, right? I wouldn't dream of it. I'll watch over you while you sleep, I'll protect you." You blush a dark rose at his words but you know he can't see in the darkness. Gaara shut the door and then you jumped out of bed as he put his gourd down in a corner. You ran over to him and hugged him tightly. He stroked your hair gently and then he suddenly wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close to him and whispered, "I won't lose you, I'll keep you safe. Because I love you." His heart beat was fast but he spoke the truth and you didn't think you could go any redder. But you did. Gaara picked you up bridal style and then brought you back over to the bed and put you under the covers after taking your sandals off. "Well, no." Gaara began as he took his shirts off. "I know I'm in love with you. I never want to leave your side and you're the only one that makes me feel anything..." Gaara put his shirts in a drawer and then took off his shoes and climbed into the bed as well. He lay on his side and pulled you close, your face was softly nuzzled near his neck, your legs intertwined with his, and his arm wrapped around your waist as the other stroked your hair. You gave a slight smile and looked at Gaara's closed eyes. His breath was shaky and his jaw was clamped down. He opened his eyes and looked in yours, his eyes still looked slightly mad from what Sasuke did so you gave him a peck on the cheek and said:

"You can cry... if that's what you need to do..." Gaara answered slowly.

"I don't need to cry."

"Bottling up up your feelings are bad though."

"It's just that... I won't let the Uchiha take you away from me. I know you don't belong to me but, the easiest way to say this is... you're mine."

It was silent for a little while and you stared in his worried, brilliant green eyes. "Gaara," while pausing, you reached up and put your palm on his cheek. You gave him a small smile and whispered, "I'm in love with you." Gaara blushed slightly and then brushed his lips against yours and closed his eyes as he said:

"My heart belongs only to you... always." Gaara gave you a kiss of passion, then the night took you away to your dreams. A place where passionate hearts stay together and never break, where there is only love.

_End of Chapter 4 ~ Passionate Hearts_


	5. Chapter 5 The DateMemories

_Chapter 5 ~ The Date/Memories_

You kept your eyes closed as you woke up. The dream you had woken up from went through your mind quickly and then you opened up your eyes to see Gaara's chest. You grimaced from the light that came in from the window and grabbed the sheets to pull up and cover your head. The arm that was around your torso slipped away and you reached out to hold the hand. Instead, you ended up poking Gaara's flat stomach and feeling a hand on your head over the covers. Gaara spoke after quickly grabbing your hand that poked him. "Good morning you violent sleeper." He gave a small chuckle and then you slowly moved the covers from your head. Gaara spoke again in a whisper because you were glaring at the sun that came from the window behind him. "You kicked me out of the bed. I didn't think someone as fragile as you would have that much power." He laughed again and then put his hand over your cheek and leaned in to give you a quick kiss on the forehead.

You glared at Gaara and said, "I'm gonna eat you if you don't close the curtains..." Then Kankuro and Temari walked into the room. While hitting Kankuro in the side, Temari gasped and said "Kankuro, they're... they did _it_!" She started laughing weird with a suspicious look on her face. Gaara was speechless and his face was shocked so he sat up and yelled back.

"Hey, w-what the hell are you thinking? I did nothing to her!" You saw the look on Gaara's face and sat up to say with a blush:

"This isn't what you think it is! All it was is... well-"

"I was just holding her because she was scared, that's all it was. You got that? Don't let your minds go crazy, and I _am_ wearing pants!" Gaara was blushing like crazy. Then he got out of bed and stood up and said "See?"

You slapped your head and mumbled, "Shut up, you idiot..."

Gaara scratched the back of his head and looked up the ceiling and said no more. Kankuro broke an awkward silence with some information. "Okay, well, to be entered in the exam you need to give someone a slip of paper. It's the first examiner and he'll be in the yard near the Hokage's office. We're going now, you have to register within the next day or you won't be entered." He waved a hand and then said "Be happy... even we haven't seen Gaara without his shirt since he was born!" He started laughing so you made a hammer out of ice and then hit Kankuro over the head then they both ran and slammed the door.

You stared at Gaara blankly and he mumbled, "What?" with embarrassed eyes. You simply shook your head and went to the bathroom to change. You brushed _your_ hair and changed into a shirt with a bunch of zips on it. You sighed then went out of the bathroom and saw Gaara facing a wall with his shirts back on. He rammed his head into it and left an invisible dent. He was about to do it again but then you put your hand up and you pushed him onto the bed.

You rolled your eyes and shook your head. Putting a fist in the air, you spoke calmly with a look of superiority "Yeah, so, uh... what the heck was that?" You blinked a little and then Gaara sat up and you cut him off just as he started talking.

"Come on, you were embarrass-"

You pushed him back down and lay on him and lightly slapped his forehead, he blinked. "Not enough to go and say something like that, or ram my head into a wall! Are you feverish or something?"

The back of your hand went on Gaara's forehead and then he slapped your hand away and looked to his left. "You're mad, right?"

You sighed and then leaned into Gaara's face. "No," You chuckled, "I'm not. Just a little surprised." You kissed each other and then you leaned your body into Gaara's and moaned a little. Gaara smirked and then you got off him and started walking towards the door with a cerise blush. Gaara smirked and then sat up as you reached the door. He appeared in front of you and shut the door you tried opening and then walked toward you as you walked backwards. You reached the edge of the bed and then you asked "W-what?"

Gaara replied with a question, "So, what was that about?"

"N-nothing. I just thought we should turn our slips in, that's all."

You blushed more and Gaara shrugged and rolled his eyes then started walking to the door. "Whatever." he said playfully. Gaara didn't bother getting his gourd and you followed him after he went through the door. You put on your ninja sandals and then went through the door. Gaara pushed you against the wall and kissed you aggressively, he put his leg between yours, making you moan. He quickly stopped though and then turned his head to the left and spoke in a scary tone. "One word and you're dead." It was Temari and Kankuro and they were gawking at you. You blushed hard and then they ran to their room and shut the door. Gaara smirked and whispered, "Aright, now that I've gotten you back for surprising me... let's go."

You just stayed silent and followed him. But halfway to the centre, you started yelling at Gaara. "I surprised you? What the hell were you doing then, hm?" He spoke with a smirk:

"Oh well, too late now."

You sighed and then mumbled, "You could at least run there. We'll be there in like five minutes if you do. Or I could carry you if I have to." Gaara stopped dead in his tracks and stared at you with a teasing glare.

Gaara clenched his jaw together and said, "No." You put on a questioning look on your face as you stopped to look behind you. Gaara continued. "I have _some_ pride you know." You rolled your eyes.

"Fine, we'll walk." You looked away from Gaara and grabbed his hand into a light hold.

Gaara's hand curled around your own. He smiled as he walked and said, "We?" he chuckled a little. "I like that. You holding my hand..."

You blushed and mumbled, "What, I'm not allowed to?"

Gaara gave your hand a quick squeeze and whispered, "No. It's just fine with me. Perfectly fine..." You smiled with a blush and kept looking away from Gaara's eyes.

Once you reached the centre to hand in the slips, you realized that there were a lot of people there and unconsciously squeezed Gaara's hand. A thought crossed your mind. 'What if I lose control of my emotions and I have the blood lust in my eyes? I don't want to kill all these people, but what if it happens? I wouldn't be able to control myself if the demon came out...' You shut your eyes for a minutes or so as you reached the line where everyone was lining up at. While sighing, you opened them and then noticed a man standing near the first examiner. He had eyes like a snake. Suddenly a voice went through your thoughts of who it might be. "Maria, what's wrong? Your acting weird. It's like you're scared." You looked in Gaara's eyes and simply said,

"I just don't like crowds is all... I-I'm fine, don't worry about me." Suddenly, you were being held in a hug. But it wasn't from Gaara. It was Sasuke. Gaara glared at him and was about ready to punch him as he didn't bother bringing his gourd.

After letting go of Gaara's hand, you attempted to slap Sasuke away from you, but he grabbed both of your hands with one of his and said, "Hello, you two. Have you missed me?" You glared and then struggled to get away as you felt a hand around the zipper of your pants being pulled down. Gaara was being pulled away from you by some guy wearing a mask. You blushed as you felt a hand going up your shirt. You tried to push Sasuke away but without your hands free, you wouldn't be able to use the water or ice and you're not the best with physical strength. Gaara was best with sand, and he didn't have his gourd with him, so you assumed that his gourd kept sand in it. Gaara's eyes widened as he saw Sasuke kiss you again. He punched the guy that was holding him and gave him a nose bleed. He ran toward you and punched Sasuke in the cheek. You were able to move after that and felt like giving Sasuke a punch yourself.

While cracking your knuckles, you started walking toward Sasuke. Gaara stepped in front of you and said, "Just stay in line and let me do this. _Please_." He was glaring at Sasuke with fists in the air. "This bastard is gonna die for touching you." Gaara pushed Sasuke around a little and then once they got to a little more of an open area, Gaara punched Sasuke right in the gut and said in a menacing tone. "I think I said not to touch her ever again or I would kill you. Besides, you've really pissed me off!" Gaara quickly took out a kunai and made a cut across Sasuke's arm. Then he made a mark on his face. Sasuke grimaced and Gaara said, "I just can't wait to give your blood to mother. She'll be so... happy!" Gaara punched Sasuke in the chin with an uppercut. You noticed the guys around smirking at you and looking you up and down. You grimace and feel claustrophobic. You hear Gaara yell as Sasuke walks away with rolling eyes. He yelled to the guys around you, "Keep your eyes off of my girlfriend! I'll rip your eyes out of their sockets!" One guy that was like 14 years old put his arm around your shoulder and said:

"She's pretty cute to have a boyfriend like you. Is he lying about that, cutie?" You grabbed his hand that was on your shoulder and twisted it. He put his arm around your neck so you made ice appear in his arm and elbowed him in the stomach.

You glared at the boy, he still wouldn't let go, and said: "It's definitely no lie. I hate guys that talk like you. They sicken me."

Gaara came over and pushed the guy away from you. He embraced you and wiped away a tear that you didn't realize was there. You remembered what Sasuke had done and asked Gaara, "Hey, cover me for a second." He was confused and replied,

"What do you- ...Oh." He blushed lightly and then you nodded as he realized that you needed him to cover you for a minute so that you could zip your pants back up because of Sasuke. You sighed and then Gaara hugged you again and whispered in your ear, "I hate it... they're all looking at you." You smiled and replied:

"Actually they're all looking at you." Gaara was silent as he was waiting for the next part since it made no sense to him. "It's you because you basically just told everyone here that I'm your girlfriend. You said it quite plainly, actually. 'Keep your eyes off of my girlfriend! I'll rip your eyes out of their sockets!' is what you said, remember?" You chuckled a little as he replied.

"Oh..." He stopped hugging you and then whispered lightly. "okay, I didn't mean to say it that loudly... It just sort of... came out. I was mad, okay?" You glanced behind Gaara and saw that someone was smirking at you. You cringed slightly and Gaara turned around and put on a death glare. They stopped looking and you relaxed a little. Gaara's eyes were fixed in a glare and he mumbled to himself, "The next person that even looks at her isn't going to have a future..."

After a little while, you were able to hand in the slips. The person said to look at this bulletin board to see who you would face in the preliminaries if there were too many people by the third exam. You and Gaara left the centre with glares. But yours was a tired glare. After getting a little ways away from the centre, you pulled Gaara into an alley as he still looked mad. You thought the words and put a hand on Gaara's back. It didn't calm him down at all so you made it stronger and it still didn't work. Gaara stared at you and questioned, "What are you doing?" You shook your head and pushed him against the wall. You lifted your mouth up to his ear and grew the fangs, they brushed his ear and he shivered a little. "Maria, what are you-"

You moved back and looked in Gaara's eyes. As you spoke you him your voice slowly lowered and you moved your mouth close to his ear. "You promised me before we left that you wouldn't kill anyone. But you've been threatening a lot, so I want to calm you down so that it doesn't actually happen." Gaara sighed and replied with a glare,

"But if you do it the way I think you are, then I'll just be turning into the guys I was trying to get off of you the whole morning." You put a finger to his lips and whispered in his ear again.

"Your feeling for protecting me was too strong so I couldn't do what I usually would. So I have to do it this way. I can handle you like this for a few minutes. Just take it and give into the feeling." You grazed the fangs on his ear and then blew in. You moved the collar of his shirt and slowly moved your mouth to the base of his neck. You dug your fangs in lightly and then slowly harder, your hand crossed his chest and Gaara fell to his knees. You bent down slowly and put your hand on his shoulder while putting a hand on his chest. Gaara's heart was fast and his eyes were half closed. He suddenly slapped himself after looking at you.

"Maria," he whispered slowly, "I've already become one of those guys back there. Don't come anywhere near me or I'm going to do something I'll regret." You ignored his words, sat in front of him and put your hand under his shirt up to his heart, his heart danced. You sighed and leaned against the wall beside him. Suddenly, you were on your back with lips against yours. In between Gaara kissing you, he spoke quietly. "I told you to stay away so that I wouldn't do anything. Even when I'm normal, I don't even trust myself around you. Don't - don't let me do anything you don't want. I don't want to hurt you." You smiled and then pushed him off you with difficulty. You thought the words in your head and put your palm to his heart. His breaths turned calm and his body relaxed. He glared at a wall as he lay on his back, "I hate being like that..." He mumbled. "I hate it."

Gaara sat up and then stood up slowly. You grabbed his hand and then gave him a hug from behind. "You being really protective over me..." you whispered to him, "It's nice of you, but leave me on a loose leash every once in a while." You grinned and dragged him out of the alley saying, "Let's go get lunch and hang out for a while though!"

You let Gaara choose where to eat lunch and then you dragged him off to an ice cream place. You both got one and then later you saw that some kid had dropped his ice cream on the ground so you gave yours up and then gave it to the kid. Gaara was surprised that you did that and let you have some of his. He whispered, "Here, you just gave yours up so take mine." You just smiled at him and replied,

"No, You should still have some... we'll share it."

Gaara smiled at you and said, "I like the _we_ part." He rolled his eyes and you two proceeded to the park. The both of you sat down at a bench and and simply watched some kids play at a playground; You honestly thought it to be quite cute, though, Gaara's face seemed to be down. He crossed his arms. His eyes were closed and he sighed.

While also sighing, you wrapped your arms around Gaara and asked "What's wrong?" Gaara bit his lip and replied in a far away voice,

"It's nothing really... just memories."

"Of what?"

"Nothing, alright? just drop it." You stopped hugging Gaara and looked at the kids. As he said, you simply dropped the subject.

You watched the kids and realized that there was one kid just being by himself. He had the same face as someone you had seen once before... but you couldn't put a name on him. Suddenly, some kids went up to him and started talking to him, then they started kicking him. You immediately got up and appeared in front of the kid. You glared at the kids and asked, "So... I think I just saw an innocent kid being picked on. Did you have a reason? Even if you guys did I doubt it was a good reason. Knock it off." The kids started to back away but then one spoke up,

"But he killed my dad..."

You sighed and then said, "Get out of my site." They ran off and then you also glared at the kid you just protected. You asked him a question: "Why did you kill-" He interrupted you.

"I-it wasn't on purpose! It's just that... something only I can do went and..." You shook your head and replied to the kid calmly and without a glare.

"I understand. I've done that before... just try not to. But hey, you're not the only one that's special, I am too. But be careful..." You gave him a slight smile and then walked back to Gaara, who's eyes were wide with surprise and confusion.

Without a second thought, you walked past Gaara and headed toward the third training ground. But as you walked, Gaara slowly caught up and grabbed your hand to make you stop. You whipped your arm around to make him let go. He yelled as you continued walking without a word, "Maria, what happened in your past to make you like this?"

You shook your head and slowly turned around. With a small smile, you looked in Gaara's eyes and said, "At this specific moment, I don't want to talk about it. But I promise to tell you later today, oka-?" You put your hand to your mouth and turned around. Blood drizzled out onto your hand slowly. You cleared your throat and repeated, "Okay? So then I'll see you later."

You ran off and soon appeared near the third training grounds. You took a break from running and leaned against a tree. More blood came out onto your hand but you just let it come and once it stopped, you nearly fell over from the lack of oxygen that came with blood leaving through your mouth. But someone suddenly appeared and kept you from falling over. A smile came on your bloody lips as it was just the person you wanted to see.

"Maria... I can only guess you want to upgrade again?" You stood on your own, looked up at the man with a mask covering half his face and said:

"Hey, there Kakashi. How have your days been? Still late for your students training?" You wiped away the blood from your mouth and then Kakashi gave you a small handkerchief. You took it and wiped your hands and mouth, Kakashi responded:

"Days are fine. Students are... waiting at the moment actually." You chuckled. You could expect this from him.

"I have some stuff to ask you about. I'll ask as we head over to your students." So he nodded and the both of you began to walk to a bridge where his students have probably already been waiting for hours. "So," You began, "just to reminisce about when I was your student, you know when I was getting picked on by those chuunins? What exactly did I do?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow in wonder as to why you were asking something like that. But he answered, "You just took it for a few minutes but then you got angry and beat them to hell. Now what do you really want to ask?"

"Well, if you want it straight out... Anyway, you've always gotten the students that needed the most help right? So then, did you get Naruto on your team? If he has the nine tailed fox inside of him then he would need to be watched to control it right?" Kakashi was silent for a moment and then nodded to answer all of the questions. You continued about the 1st real question, "How does he fight? Is he able to access the power of the nine tails?"

Kakashi sighed and then answered: "He's the stupidest ninja I have ever worked with. He only uses one technique and can't throw shuriken for his life... But he's the number one ninja at surprising people. Once he messes up, he messes up again and again, but he always wins in the end. But he's not able to access the power yet, or at least he doesn't know how to." You stared at Kakashi blankly and then continued onto the next question.

"Question number 2, have you seen anything weird recently? I'm just getting a bad feeling that something horrible is about to happen. I recently saw a man with eyes like a snake... It might have been my imagination but it's leaving me with a hunch that something's going to happen."

Without you realizing it, you had just stepped foot onto the bridge. You looked down and saw the wooden planks and then waited for Kakashi's answer. "Nothing that I've seen has been out of place except you coughing up blood and asking me weird questions." You were about to retort back about that but then, two people came running up to Kakashi screaming:

"You're late! Every time we meet you are late!" You grinned Kakashi's way and said,

"Oh, look, the students you faithfully come to at a late time with no real reason."

Kakashi hit you on the head a rubbed his eyes. Here came his reply to his students, "Oh... I was walking with Maria and she held me up a few times to... get some training." You put up your hands and saw that the people on his team were Naruto and Sakura. You shook your head and pointed at Kakashi to say that you really didn't. You gave Kakashi a look that meant you would be waiting until you finished talking them. All that Kakashi said was: "I've entered you all in the chuunin exam. It's in a few days, make a decision on whether you all participate. See you tomorrow at the third training grounds and I'll give you all a few pointers. 6 AM. See you then."

You spoke up after he was done and said, "Well then, Kakashi, Just keep a look out for anything like what I saw, okay? I'll wait for 10 minutes every night at this bridge. I will be here exactly at midnight but I will stay no later than 12:10. See you later." You have a quick wave and then Kakashi was gone. You looked at Naruto as he was about to speak. Most likely about what you just said so you answered him right away, "What I just said has nothing to do with you... maybe. Anyway, I'll be off as well, so long Naruto and..." You gave a slight glare at Sakura and continued, "eh... Pinky." You had a small laugh and then a hand suddenly held your chin. Lips touched yours and you pushed whoever it was that had kissed you away. A blush formed on your face but your eyes were angry from seeing who had done it. You bit your lip and put a fist up ready to punch.

"Maria, why don't you ever take it and return it for me? I would love if you did." In the corner of your eye, you saw Sakura glaring at you, but you were focused on the jerk that used to be nice to you. Sasuke.

You lowered your fist but glared and yelled at him, "The Sasuke I knew was nice! He smiled all the time and talked continuously about how much he idolized his brother. Maybe if you were that Sasuke then I wouldn't dislike you so... But hey, I guess people change don't they? They change into jerks and idiots that just don't know when to quit."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and grabbed your shoulder and you looked down at his neck to avoid his eyes as he spoke: "Shut up, the Sasuke you knew is gone. You have no idea what has happened since then. The Sasuke you see before you is the one to stay." He smirked. As he leaned into you, he put his other hand on your cheek, you flinched and whispered as your voice quivered.

"D-don't-"

"Don't what?" Sasuke closed his eyes for more than a few seconds and then as he opened them, they turned red with small dots around the pupil. But they weren't the real thing. They were the sharingan eye. It was an Uchiha's blood limit. They had extreme accuracy at seeing movement. You started to shake from bad memories of those eyes. "Why are you shaking so violently? You can't be that mad." Another smirk formed on his lips and he brought his face closer to yours. All you saw was the bloody color of the eyes he had. Your eyes widened as you remembered the bad memory.

Sasuke's brother used the sharingan on you once before. His eyes went into your memories and brought it back into your mind since you had forgotten. It was right before you left the organization. It showed you killing innocent, faceless people over and over again until you screamed for him to stop. At that time, you left the organization because it made you sick of killing and then you didn't talk to anyone for a year and lived by yourself in the middle of nowhere.

Your past was one you could have done without. But actually doing everything you did made it slightly traumatic for you, so you screamed out loud. "Don't touch me!" You slapped Sasuke's hands away and he backed up after seeing that you had rapidly made shuriken out of ice and your eyes had turned black. Even though they were black, a tear fell down your cheek as you said, "I don't want to remember my past... Your brother..." You dropped the kunai and turned around to leave. Your hair covered your eyes and you walked to the forest again. Someone started running after you but you disappeared then reappeared deep within the forest. You stood still for a few moments, then you abruptly concentrated some of your chakra to your fist and punched a tree. It came away from it's roots and fell over. You coughed a little and then blood, once again, drizzled out from your mouth. It made you angry to have blood keep on going without even being punched or anything.

After a few more trees fell down, you felt your heart beat extra hard and suddenly, blood just spurted from your mouth. You collapsed onto your knees and thought aloud, "So what? This means I can't mold my chakra without spitting up blood? How stupid." You got up and didn't realize that the sun was starting to go down.

You started walking back to the hotel but once you reached the edge of the forest, arms wrapped around you making you scream and push them away. You turned around to see that it was Sasuke. He had a serious expression on and walked toward you as you backed up. "What," He asked, "did Itachi do?"

You were silent and closed your eyes returning to the darkness of one's past. You accidentally pulled up the memory and it made the tears well up. But you held it in as you simply answered the question. "He used mangekyo sharingan and made me remember things that I didn't want to. One's past is a dark place and I don't ever want to remember it. But your eyes are the same and keep bringing it up. So stay away from me..."

Sasuke was suddenly much closer than before and brought you into a warm embrace. There was a soothing smell once he pulled you to him, so you began to relax a little. You were surprised and kept thinking, 'Maybe... the Sasuke I knew is still in there...' Because of that one thought, you didn't struggle to get away, but seeing as how you began to let tears drop it would have been hard to anyway. "I'm sorry." His words surprised you even more. He continued and held you slightly tighter, "I didn't mean to bring something like that back up. But if you really want to know why I'm this way now, it's because Itachi did something to the whole clan. Something I can't forgive. He killed the whole clan except me and now I want my revenge. I'm not about to change back into the kid I was before, I can't get my revenge with the little power I had then. Going into someone's past can be dark... so I'll get your revenge as well." His words made the tears flow faster. He slowly spoke again, "That's all I wanted to say. I'm sorry."

You bit your lip and attempted to make the tears stop, "Thank you, Sasuke..." You whispered softly. Sasuke stopped holding you and lightly put his palm to your cheek, he closed his eyes and you did as well. His lips pressed against yours and you pressed back. Your eyes widened then you pulled away and ran off.

As you ran, you thought, 'Why did I do that...? He's not the old Sasuke... but I can see that there is some of him there. I can see it. I know he's there...' You reached the hotel once the sun went down.

Before you went in you quickly made the hand signs to put an imitation of you inside of the Akatsuki. You wrote a note to Pein that said you would be there in a week or so because something came up. After you got rid of the imitation, you walked into the room and saw Gaara lying down with his eyes closed. A smile crossed your lips as you thought, 'He looks like a child with not a care in the world...' He yawned and rubbed his eyes. 'How cute.' You thought as you slowly walked forward. You got down on your knees near the front of the bed and lightly put your hand over Gaara's shoulder. He sighed and then his eyes slowly opened. A smile came on your lips as you whispered, "Good morning, or rather, night." Gaara started to sit up. He leaned back with his palms behind him; a small smile came on his lips as he said

"So where did you run off-" His words were cut off by another yawn and sleepy tears down his cheek. You reached up to his face as he rubbed his eyes again. While you wiped away the tears he continued, "-to? I got bored without you, hehe."

You got up and then sat on the bed next to him while whispering the answer since he was looking tired. "Really now? And what exactly did you do, sleep?" You leaned into Gaara and his arms were weak from relaxing too long so he fell back with you lying over him.

"Sorry, I'm tired today..." You laughed slightly and replied,

"I don't mind. Anyway, I went to go see Kakashi, ended up seeing who was on his team... and punched a few trees down. Not a very interesting day."

"Hey..." Gaara breathed in and then continued, "you smell different. What did you do?" You remembered that there was a soothing smell on Sasuke. "Well, it doesn't really matter. Just curious..." Your smile faded slightly as you just pictured yourself with the childish Sasuke from years ago and then the one today. Then the sharingan eye, along with the slaughter of many, blood spilling, draining from lifeless bodies. All of it because of one person. You began to shake slightly, Gaara noticed it. He put his arms around you and asked, "Hey, what's wrong? You're shaking you know..." You sighed and put on a smile then sat up while replying:

"I'm alright. Just cold, that's all..." Your voice trailed off as you heard your stomach grumble. You began to blush a little, "and maybe a little hungry..." Gaara sat up as well and rubbed his eyes as he said:

"Then let's get you some food." You blushed more as you looked at him. "What's with the blush?" He asked with a tired smile.

You licked your lips and then answered, "You look really cute when you're sleepy..." Gaara put a hand on the back of your neck, leaned in and whispered,

"You can't be serious..." You closed your eyes and waited for contact. Lips touched yours.

But your stomach rumbled again. You pulled away and chuckled a little. A sigh came from your lips and then you said, "I would stay here but I need some food." You stood up and then slowly walked to the door, you turned around as if waiting for something. It seemed you had to spell it out. "You could come with me..." Gaara got the hint and stood up as well. You quickly left the hotel and went out to Ichiraku Ramen. With a sigh, you sat down on the stools at Ichiraku Ramen and ordered something. Gaara was about to sit down as well when you said, "I'll be back in a few seconds." Without his agreement, you left Ichiraku and appeared in the forest. You molded your chakra and began to spit up blood, and then you simply punched the ground, making a large hole appear and dust fly through the air with a loud sound to go with it. You returned to the ramen place and then started spinning around in your chair. While wiping away the blood, you looked at Gaara and saw that his face was worried and confused. You thought, 'I'll tell him about it when we get back.' You sighed as you got your food. Then before you ate, you said, "Gaara, I'll tell you once we get back." He nodded and had a suspicious look in his eyes. You ignored it and began to eat.

While you ate, it was freakishly silent. But after you were almost done, you heard a voice that sounded like Sasuke's so you suddenly slammed your hand down on the counter and ended up shattering the bowl that your ramen was in. It ended up just being your imagination. You sighed and apologized for the broken bowl. You got up from your seat and payed for the ramen and the bowl. "I'll take my leave then..." You said as a goodbye to the shop owner. You began to leave and Gaara caught up quickly. You talked first about the blood that came whenever the chakra was molded, "I assume that you are going to ask about the blood and the reason I broke that bowl, correct?" He simply nodded so you continued, "At the moment, when I mold my chakra, blood comes out of my mouth. And about the bowl..." You sighed and turned around to say: "why don't we save that for later, hm?" You said it with a smile so he just nodded again. You sighed again and thought 'Why did I have to end up hearing his voice?' You heard his smooth voice again and put the chakra to your foot, then kicked the ground after pushing Gaara away. Another hole. The blood that was supposed to come out of your mouth got stuck in your lungs so you fell to your knees and started coughing. You managed to get the blood out onto the ground so you sighed once it was over. Then a hand brought you up to your feet. The persons eyes were concerned and they couldn't seem to stop the worry.

"Maria, what's wrong? Are you alright?" Your eyes widened and you looked up to see Sasuke. While pushing him away, you wiped away the blood from your mouth and looked over to where Gaara was. You were about to go to him since he had fallen back. But Sasuke grabbed your hand and asked it again. "Are you okay?"

You sighed and squeezed his hand while saying, "I'm fine. Just leave me alone." You pulled your hand back and went to Gaara, who saw Sasuke and put a glare on his face. You grabbed his arm and whispered, "Let's just go, alright? I don't want to see him again today." Gaara was confused and asked,:

"Again?"

"Never mind, okay?"

Gaara was surprised and didn't move one bit. Instead, he glared some more and asked Sasuke a question. "What did you do to her when I wasn't with her today?"

There was silence. A deafening one. The trees blew in the darkness of night and then a figure came up to you. He had white hair and a mask on his face. You let go of Gaara's arm and glanced behind you to see Sasuke with worried eyes. A memory went through your mind.

*_Flashback*_

You were running at the age of 6 in konoha in the Uchiha clan's part of Konoha. You were running with Sasuke and laughing as you went to the shrine to meet Itachi, Sasuke's brother. Sasuke said he couldn't wait to see his brother since you both were going to get a lesson from him. Just as you reached the top of the shrine, you tripped on the last step and hurt your ankle. It was bleeding. He looked at you with worried eyes and kept asking if you were going to be okay if he left for help. You asked him just to stay with you instead of getting help. Itachi eventually came and got the both of you.

_*End of Flashback*_

"Sasuke..." You mumbled his name as you realized that he stayed with you at that time. You sighed and then glared. A yell came from you to Sasuke. "What exactly happened 5 years ago? What exactly did he say to you that made you this way? Tell me what happened when I left!" He was silent and disappeared in the night. You sighed and your anger calmed. Gaara came up to you and put a hand on your shoulder. A tear left your eye and you mumbled, "Damn it..."

Kakashi came over and said, "The only thing that I saw tonight was you coughing up blood and asking weird questions. I'll see if there's anything odd tomorrow." You nodded and then he left.

You fell to your knees and clenched your fist against the ground. "Why is it..." You spoke quietly so that Gaara couldn't hear and brought both of your hands to your face, "that I keep seeing the kid that was him? It's not the real thing, it's fake." You sighed and got up to your feet. You were embraced after your tear was wiped away.

Gaara whispered in your ear a question, "Mind telling me why your being so jumpy and odd?"

You shook your head and got out of his grip. After starting to walk back to the hotel, Gaara followed and grabbed your hand, but you let go and walked by yourself.

You reached the hotel and quickly changed in the washroom then climbed into bed after turning the light off. You reached your hand out and said, "Gaara, I'm sorry I haven't really been explaining anything. So I will... another day."

You felt a hand on yours and then heard a sigh. "Please, "Gaara said, "tell me what happened." His hand left yours and you heard shuffling in the darkness. You sighed as you brought your hand back and felt arms around you. You faced him and stayed silent. You heard him whisper "Please..."

You sighed again and then decided to tell him the most part. "well... he has the sharingan eye. His older brother from the organization has it as well. It reminded me of his brother showing me everyone I had killed, faceless people, and the peoples families that will still be grieving just because some kid killed their family member. There was so much blood..." You put a hand over your eyes and felt the tears drop. You wiped them away and calmed down. "That's what you wanted to hear. But... "

"What?"

"He... apologized." It was silent again. And you added something that Gaara didn't want to hear. "And I let him kiss me."

The arms that were around you, let go and you felt Gaara move away a little. Then he asked, "Do you like him?" There was a harshness in his voice and you bit your lip.

You glared and answered, "No."

"Then... why? Why did you let him?"

"I..." You felt his hand on your cheek and realized that he was trying to keep his anger down. "I... saw him... as the seven year old I knew then. He was nice, and acted how you did. So I tried forgetting you five years ago. But it never worked and it hurt when I got older. And then I found out how he was now. But all I can see is the seven year old... and I can't understand why my mind is going this way. But I don't... I don't like him. I only like you..." But you quickly thought, 'For now, anyway...' You reached out and put a hand to Gaara's chest and said: "I'm not lying, Gaara..."

Within a matter of seconds, you were being pushed into the soft bed by Gaara. He lay on top of you and glared in your eyes. You could barely see it from the moonlight from the windows. "I never said that you _were_ lying. But you never told me that you tried forgetting about me... Or that he acted how I did. So now I think you _are_ lying." He silent for a moment and then asked, "You said 'only like'. What happened to 'love'?

You looked in his glaring eyes blankly and then whispered, "I wanted to forget... since I had to leave and get stronger, which meant leaving you. Which hurt, so I tried to forget you. But it never worked and I regretted it. But I'm not lying! And I meant that I'll only ever like you and no one else. Don't get the wrong idea!"

He stopped glaring and stopped pushing you down then grabbed his head as if remembering something. He moved off of you and sat up while biting his lip and holding his head in pain. You also sat up slowly and pulled him into a hug. He mumbled while still biting his lip. "I remember when my father brought me to Konoha as a visit to the Hokage and I saw you. Instantly knew it was you, I wanted to say hi, but I wasn't allowed since my father feared my power himself. I saw you running to a shrine, laughing with a kid that looked exactly like him. You stopped for a minute and looked at me, I smiled and you looked at me like I was a monster or a rival. Then you continued laughing with the guy and then kept running to the shrine." He became silent and then said, "You made it hurt more when I saw it. Because I just knew when I was a kid... that I was going to find you when I was strong enough and fight for you. So that only made me more determined even though it hurt..." You felt something drip onto your shoulder and looked to Gaara's face. His lip was bleeding. You looked away and whispered:

"I'm sorry..." You felt it drip onto your shoulder again and started shaking. Without hesitation, you said, "No more blood. No more." And connected your lips to his. You took the blood away from him as you shook and then it stopped for a bit; you put your fingers to his lip and tried to stop shaking. "Not even a small cut. No more." Gaara grabbed your hand and stuck your finger tips into your mouth and whispered,

"My blood is yours. If I'm going to die, it'll be by you but your love takes away from the hurt that is in the past. But there's a new hurt. One I don't know how to deal with..."

"I'm sorry-" You felt something shoot through your mind and then everything became nothing, you blacked out.

You woke up to dark eyes. Black around them, but soft green eyes beneath. You reached out and lightly put your fingers over his eyes. You slid your fingers down to his lips and felt their softness. You brought your face closer to the lips and saw the eyes open and gaze at you lovingly, You felt his breath on your cheek and leaned your face into his and exchanged a kiss. He pulled away slowly, and whispered, "Time to get up."

"Morning to you too, Gaara."

You got up slowly and stretched. You saw that it was raining outside today, so the sun wouldn't be in your eyes. You sighed, got some clothes ready and walked to the washroom to get changed. You came out and Gaara was waiting in front of the door. "Someone said something about preliminary rounds before the third exam. They said there was a bulletin board to see who we would be facing in those rounds. So That's the first thing I propose we do today." You simply nodded and after getting a jacket was out the door. You headed down to where the people were taking slips in and then saw a board with names and matches on it. Gaara said who he was facing, "Rock...lee? What kind of name is that...?"

You chuckled a little and then immediately stopped, You glared and nearly punched the board. "Sasuke. I'm facing Sasuke." You mumbled.

"You know what, we're going to go train. You're going to get over Sasuke, now." Yet, his eyes weren't quite sure of that...He dragged you to the training grounds and then he tried giving a speech thing to motivate you. "Listen to me. Sasuke-" He twitched a little, "-Sasuke is just a genin, you were an assassin and still have your powers since then. You could easily take him down. Hell, you could kill him, but you wouldn't become a chuunin if you were to... Still, you know you're stronger than him, so why cower? If he speaks, block out your sense of hearing if it's that bad. Otherwise just ignore it. If he catches you off guard then recompose yourself and catch him off guard, then attack him. I never want to say anything like this again, so you got that?" You nodded and sighed.

"Hey," you glared at the ground, "Transform into Sasuke, think you can do that?" Gaara rolled his eyes and then did as told. Though he did look like he was just insulted. You sighed again stared at the Sasuke transformation. "Come at me and attack."

Gaara sighed and said, "This is stupid. I could beat you easy." You realized that that was something Sasuke would say and replied:

"Just do it!"

"What an idiot, you're going to get yourself killed." You realized that was also something he would say and questioned the transformation. But he came at you and you dodged. The odd time he said something along the lines that Sasuke would have and then you didn't hesitate to make an ice kunai and jab it into his shoulder. His reaction time was slow and he didn't avoid it well. It went straight through his shoulder. He smirked though and said "That was pretty good for an idiot that can't even keep her feelings in check. Hell, you actually believed I was Gaara for a while. I'm obviously Sasuke. Who else could I be?" You sighed, trying to ignore his words. He pushed you down into the grass and put his lips to yours, they felt exactly the same as when Sasuke had kissed you. You put a gash in his other shoulder with another ice kunai. And pushed him off. Well, tried to. He held your arms down to the grass and said, "Why don't we have some fun at my place later tonight? I'm sure no one will notice..." He leaned down again and you thrust your head at his. He grabbed his head and got off of you. "God damn it, Maria! Did you really have to do that?" You put your hand to your head and felt a little dizzy from hitting his head with yours and then you saw him transform back into Gaara. His blood dropped onto your cheek, you shuddered. He sighed and mumbled, "I was fine with the shoulders, but hitting my head? Damn your skull is made of fucking bricks!"

You just started into his eyes, not hearing any sound. The blood hit the grass around you and you pushed him away from you. You got up quickly and jumped up and leaned against a tree. You put your fingers to your cheek and looked at it slowly. You started rubbing the blood off of your cheek as best you could and then walked back over to Gaara. "Take your shirts off." You said as you got to your knees and took out bandages.

"Maria, I'm fine."

"No you're not! I can't believe what I just did to you..." Gaara sighed and then ran a hand through your hair and brought you close to him. He kissed your forehead and smiled.

"Fine, put bandages on, but that's it. Stop worrying so much; I'll live through this easy so no worries, alright?"

You nodded in response and tore off some material from the bottom of your shirt and started to rub off some of the blood on Gaara's arms and chest. You sighed as you reached the wounds. A whole in once shoulder, lots of bleeding, and a gash in the other. You ran your fingers over his wounds and winced. You looked away and then back again after unraveling the bandages.

Once he was done having bandages put on him, you hugged him lightly and he put his arms around you as well. "Please forgive me..." you murmured.

"I already have. No worries, remember. Just stop it, and relax. I'll be fine." Gaara kissed you again and then the both of you got up and began to walk back to the hotel. You started walking but you slowly started drifting in the other direction. Gaara saw, but knew that you needed to stay away from him for a while, at least a few hours. He understood, and you walked away slowly.

Eventually, Gaara was no longer in site and you wandered into the shopping district of konoha. You ended up at the ramen bar and saw Naruto. He realized you were there and said, "Ah, hi Maria, what's up?" He was silent for a moment and his face became sullen, "What happened...? Something with Sasuke or is it something else? Are you gonna be alright?" You just looked at the ground with empty eyes, Naruto got up from his seat, and payed for hi ramen then walked around with you. "Maria-chan, want to stay at my place for the night? You can tell me what happened, did Sasuke do something to you?" You nodded then shook your head. "You want to stay over, but it's not about Sasuke?" You nodded again and you changed directions a little. You got up to his house, more like room, and he allowed you to sit on his bed. He simply asked, "So, what happened to make you feel so bad?"

You blurted out what happened while leaving the kisses out but tried to keep your voice at a normal level. It didn't succeed all that well and you eventually let tears out. By the end, you said, "I didn't want to hurt him. I don't ever want to hurt him again even though he took it so well... What if I hurt him again?" Naruto sat on the floor, struggling for the correct answer, sprung up from the floor and said:

"Don't worry! I know that you won't hurt him again on purpose. Even this time wasn't on purpose! The only way you could ever hurt someone is if you are being controlled so you'll be just fine!"

"What if I was controlled before?" you yelled. Naruto sighed and went over to you. He wrapped his arms around you and whispered,

"Then all you have to do is keep trying not to."

'Keep trying, hm?' you thought for a moment and smiled, though it didn't reach your eyes. "Thanks Naruto. Or Naruto-kun, since I consider you a friend."

Naruto smiled and said, "Here, you can take the bed, and I'll think of something to sleep on for myself. You should get some sleep. But I'll be back later, I have some training to do." He got up and walked to the door of the room. It closed slowly and he smiled while saying "Goodnight, I hope you feel better!" Then he left.

You fell asleep quickly after that and what you didn't know was that Gaara was watching the whole time. The window was open and he heard you mumble "Gaara..." In your sleep. So he opened the window a bit more and then climbed in and knelt down beside the bed. He caressed your cheek. Just as Naruto had come back into the room, he kissed you lightly on the lips. "Gaara..." You mumbled again and slowly opened your eyes, "I'm sorry."

"Maria, it's alright."

"Maria-chan?" Both you and Gaara were slightly shocked when you realized that Naruto was I the room.

"Hn, Later then." Murmured Gaara.

Gaara disappeared out of the window and Naruto walked over with a slight blush on his face. You were embarrassed that he saw that. But he asked slowly, "Maria, who is he to you?"

You stumbled upon your words but got the message out, "I, he's my, we're...- I'm not quite sure..." you were silent for a few minutes and Naruto nodded after you asked, "Would it be alright if I still stay here?" You continued talking, "Well, We've kissed and he listens, makes me feel safe. He lets me cry in his arms and he's protective... I don't know what he is to me..."

You blushed as Naruto answered his own question. "The both of you are lovers. Boyfriend and girlfriend." You blushed hard and didn't say a word.

Time ticked by and you eventually said, "W-well, goodnight Naruto! I'll see you in the morning."

Naruto sighed and said firmly, "Listen, this will sound weird, and you can think of me as a friend, but I may have a crush on you. In fact, I'm sure I do." You were shocked, then continued, "Eh, but I won't do anything you don't want me to."

You stared at Naruto in the darkness of night and got up slowly, you walked over to him slower, "Naruto, I'm going to do something, but it was only because you were nice to me today. Think nothing else of it." He was silent as you were and then you got up close to him and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Goodnight, Naruto." He went extremely red and touched his cheek lightly. You jumped back into the bed and quickly thought, 'Maria, you're such an idiot! What if you were watching Gaara do this to Taria...?' You heard a thud, Naruto had fainted...or fell asleep. But sooner than not, you feel asleep as well.

The next morning you woke up to see Naruto eating ramen for breakfast. 'Is that all he ever eats?' you thought slowly. You sat up, stared at him blankly and then said "You even eat ramen for breakfast? That's _insane_! I love it!" He looked at you like _you _were insane. "sorry... that was odd wasn't it?" He nodded quickly. Odd things always seem to happen to you in the morning. Suddenly, you remembered what happened with Naruto last night and apologized. "Eh, sorry about last night. But now, I have to go, I'm training with Iruka-sensei today." You got up and remade Naruto's bed again then walked to the door. "Thanks for the stay Naru-kun. I appreciate it. See you around." He had his face stuffed with Ramen and started waving with a smile in his eyes.

Once the door closed, you ran to go find Gaara. You ended up checking the hotel, the bulletin board place, Hokage's office, then finally the training grounds. He was at the training grounds. You saw him a talking to someone, but you didn't see or hear who it was, but you were extremely quiet and jumped toward him from a bush and knocked him over with a hug. "I missed you." He said.

"I can bet you that I missed you more." You kissed and then heard Sasuke's familiar egotistical voice.

"Hey, where's my kiss?"

You both got up and only you got into a fighting stance as Sasuke was already in one. He ran toward you and tried kicking you. You used substitution jutsu and appeared behind him with a kunai at his neck. Sasuke said something about you again which caught you off guard and let Sasuke push you down. It made you wince, but you flipped him over and elbowed him in the stomach. He was winded and he didn't get up. You started walking back to Gaara, but then you stuck a whole bunch of kunai at the sides of Sasuke's clothes to make him unable to move unless he took them all out somehow. You grinned and leaned down in front of Sasuke, "If the child Sasuke is gone, I'm not sure I want to see you ever again. Since that was the only reason, I let you kiss me." Sasuke glared,

"Well, it's not like the kid me is ever coming back so go ahead and hate me. It doesn't matter to me."

You walked back to Gaara and smiled, you left with him and went to another part of the training grounds. There was a body of water in this part and you sat down on the grass. Gaara followed while asking, "Are you still worried?"

You thought for a moment, "Let me see, then I'll say." Gaara sighed and took his shirts off again. You removed the bandages and of course still saw the wounds, but you said, "I'm changing the bandages." You got new bandages out and started wrapping his right shoulder, the one with the gash in it. Then you took a look at the left shoulder, the one with a hole in it. You ran your fingers over the hole and saw Gaara wince, you did as well. "first, wait for that answer. Second, this may hurt."

"First, alright. Second, what do you-AH!" Gaara screamed in pain as you stuck your fingers inside his shoulder and felt something sharp. You grabbed it and pulled it out, then snapped your fingers as it was a shard of your ice that got caught in his shoulder. It turned to mist and dissipated. Your hand became drenched in Gaara's blood. You started shaking and Gaara was groaning in pain but yelled, "Tell me what the hell that was for? And I damn well better get an answer for this!" You walked over to the water and washed off the blood. You walked back and ripped some of your clothing to clean a little bit of the blood on his chest and arms again. You dragged him to the water and he stayed quiet, but with the odd glare from the stinging of the wound.

"I'm sorry..." You murmured. You started to put bandages over the wound and you spoke while doing so, "I'm sorry. I know it's hurts more now; but it'll heal faster without the trace of ice in your system. I'm sorry..."

"It's alright." He replied, "just try never to do that ever again."

You hugged him immediately. "I'm so sorry. And jeez, do you have to be so modest? You were hurt because of me." You sighed and said, "I'm still half worried alright? There's your answer."

You both got up and walked back to where you left Gaara's shirts. And once you got there, Naruto was there, glaring at the blood on the grass.

_End of Chapter 5 ~ The Date/Memories_


	6. Chapter 6 Still Human

_Chapter 6 ~ Still Human_

"I thought you said you were training with Iruka today." Naruto began glaring at Gaara. You glared back as Naruto continued. "Did this guy hurt you?"

You gaped at Naruto and then yelled, "Do you really think he would hurt me?

"From the look in his unpleasant eyes, yes."

That triggered it. Both Gaara and Naruto got into fighting stances. Naruto came charging at Gaara with a kunai at the ready, Gaara ran from behind you. 'H-hold on a minute here, Gaara isn't the bad one here. I'm the one that shed his blood.' You saw Gaara's reaction time slow just as he got near enough to Naruto and Naruto kicked him in the shoulder. Gaara fell back and started bleeding again. He stood up again and you ran in between the both of them and yelled, "Stop it, both of you! This is pointless!" They stopped their fighting stances and stared at you. "Come on, this is all so stupid. I was the one that hurt Gaara. It's his blood. I'm not hurt at all, but I will be if you continue to hurt Gaara!" Naruto's eyes were large and you ran a hand through your hair then said, "Why do people have to hurt each other so much?" Naruto Glared at Gaara.

Naruto sighed and then looked to his feet. "Why don't you even care? You don't care at all that I like you, right?" He looked up and his eyes were in a daze.

"He what? What the fuck did he tell you yesterday? I'll kill this bastard right here, right now!" Gaara ran off toward Naruto and disappeared in the air. He reached Naruto and ended up missing as Naruto had jabbed his kunai into Gaara's shoulder and took another to scrape his face.

Gaara stumbled, you appeared in front of Gaara and hugged him tightly. He was still struggling to get to Naruto and Naruto didn't see you appear and ended up stabbing you in the back. Gaara stopped struggling and you smiled and kissed his lips then turned around to Naruto. You took the kunai out of your back and sighed. You went at a quarter of your top speed and grabbed Naruto's kunai pouch and all of his other weapons then threw them towards a tree as you slammed him against a tree away from his weapons and strangled him with one hand.

You put on your worst glare as your eyes went black with hatred, "You hurt him. You stabbed him. I'll never forgive you. Get out of my site before you get killed, you worthless piece of trash!" Your eyes went back to normal and you loosened your grip on his neck. "And Naruto, I do care … but he is the one that I will always care for and will always love. Now leave."

He laughed sadly, then whispered to me, "Alright, I lost this time. But if he ever hurts you and you need time to think, I'll be there for you."

Tears threatened to leave your eyes, "Naruto, you should leave." You said firmly. He left after nodding to you and you couldn't feel his presence after a few minutes. You faced Gaara and ripped the kunai out of his shoulder. He groaned in pain and put his hand on your shoulder. He held back a glare and said:

"Maria... I feel a little faint. Hahaha..."

"Shut up. I know. Lie down and stop moving." Gaara looked shocked but did as told and kept holding onto his shoulder. He lay down and you made a few seals then bent over to his face. "Gaara?" You whispered as you looked into his eyes, "I'm sorry. Just one more time, I promised that time was the last. But one more time."

"Wha-" You touched your lips to his and felt your eyes turn to snake eyes. You closed your eyes as he did and then made the fangs that grew out graze his tongue. He put a hand on your cheek and you opened your eyes to see that his eyes had opened again annoyed. "what are you doing?" He glared furiously and you put your head to his chest with a tear coming out.

"Hate it..." You mumbled to him and kissed his quickly, "I hate it when you get hurt!"

Gaara's glare got worse and he pushed you to the ground after flipping you over. He lay on top of you and said, "I can take a little pain, you idiot. I'm not so weak as you think." He pushed his tongue into your mouth and held a long kiss and he put his palm to your cheek. You took this as your chance at put the fangs into his tongue. You took them out quickly and then kissed him again. "Shit... did you really have to do that?" His eyes softened and he put his hand to your neck and slowly went down.

You gulped and blushed while saying: "G-Gaara, remember where we are-"

Gaara held tight onto your shirt with a fist and glared at you, "Damn it, why do you have to make me want you so much?" He kissed you aggressively and then backed off of you and leaned against a tree. He held his hands on his head and you blushed from your thoughts and held a hand to your chest.

You crawled over to Gaara and put a hand on his shoulder, it started healing once you touched it but you were reminded of your thought, 'It's more like why does he have to make me want him right here?' You started blushing madly and kissed him quickly then tried pulling away but your body didn't listen. You pushed your body close to his and he looked away then you put your hand to his shoulder again and it started healing. Then there was a strange feeling. Gaara's eyes closed and his body very slowly, went colder. You're eyes widened and you called his name. There was no response and tears came down.

It immediately hit you, he was becoming cold, darkness covered him – Death? That's all that came to mind. You kept calling his name every little while and there was never a response. Eventually around night time, you heard something coming and immediately threw a kunai straight in the direction. The sound said the person dodged because you weren't looking at where you were throwing and only saw Gaara on the forest floor. You waited for them to come out, turned around hesitantly and saw Sasuke. He looked intrigued on Gaara's position, but ignored it and pulled you to your feet in the moonlight.

"Maria," He mumbled, "Follow me."

You simply glared, pushed him away and yelled, "No!" You lowered your voice and looked in his eyes sadly, "Sasuke ... please leave." He looked back in your eyes fiercely and then brought you into a hug. "Sasuke, please..." He let go of you and then he kissed you quickly. You pushed away and got angry and an ice crystal appeared in Sasuke's leg. You were wide-eyed, but said, "You're so unfeeling. I always hated you for that."

Sasuke glared at the ground. "It's always him you pick, not me."

"Why _should_ I pick you?"

"*Sigh* Forget it" He rolled his eyes and then left with a slight limp from the ice crystal.

You fell to your knees again and felt that there was a small bit of warmth returning to Gaara. Eventually, he got to the okay side, and he opened his eyes to see your tears. He held you for a while and then it eventually became dawn.

It became dawn and just as the sun rose into the sky; teal eyes opened from the darkness they once held. The eyes were bright and looked into yours with a smile.

Gaara smiled and kissed you lightly. "I'm absolutely fine, I just lost a little too much blood." He whispered to you in a hoarse tone. You wiped away a tear and mumbled,

"Forget it, I'm totally worried." You couldn't hide the tears, "You nearly died, Gaara. I was crying over your supposedly dead body any you expect me to believe you're just fine? Well I can't. You're not fine, you have a load of wounds all inflicted by me!"

Gaara had wide-eyes and shook his head. "I don't care who did it. I don't care if I die -" He smiled with his hoarse voice and continued, "-so long as I'm with you."

"Don't say that!" You yelled at him with power, "I'll die when you die."

"Fine," He sighed, "I'll be careful and won't do anything rash as long as you don't as well."

You nodded slowly and silently. But suddenly you hugged Gaara tightly, "Don't die on me, Gaara. I love you." Gaara whispered the words you had said to him back into your ear. And he leaned his face to yours and gave you another quick kiss and a smile.

There was a silence. Not a bad one, but rather, a silence of smiles. "Hey, Maria-Chan!" And the silence was broken. Your face went red and you stared in the direction of the sound. Kakashi was sitting on a tree looking as though he hadn't gotten much sleep.

You simply stared and then stood up and yelled, "Kakashi! Tell me how long you've been there for!" You sounded like a mad woman but Kakashi simply smiled and replied,

"Not long, not long... Only since you winded Sasuke."

You blushed more and became even more angry and yelled, "You bastard! You could have stopped Naruto from hurting Gaara!"

"You could have as well."

"That's not the point! Why didn't you decide to stop him?"

"It was just so dramatic..." 'Wait,' You thought to yourself, 'That means he saw me and Gaara...'

"Damn it Kakashi!"

"Hey! Don't get mad at me, Iruka already saw the two of you." You simply stared at him and glared annoyingly at him. You saw Gaara shift in the corner of your eye and he suddenly began talking to Kakashi.

"Hey, jounen, that night when you popped out of nowhere when I was with Maria and Sasuke was there, did you leave with Sasuke?" Kakashi nodded slowly. "Alright, then were you the one to change the preliminary matches so that Maria would be facing Sasuke?" Kakashi nodded again.

All that you could think of doing was glowering at Kakashi and throwing a kunai at Kakashi, which hit his wrist, and yelling, "Damn it! If it weren't for you, Gaara wouldn't be hurt at all!" While sighing, you tried to calm yourself down. But it didn't work all that well.

Kakashi replied, "Relax, he'll be fine within two days if you make sure he doesn't move much. Oh, maybe you should add some more bandages, he's bleeding through them."

Gaara glowered at Kakashi and mumbled to you, "I'm absolutely fine, don't listen to this moronic old man." But you looked over to Gaara and Kakashi was in the right this time. You immediately took out your bandages from your pocket and Gaara tried getting away but fell back almost instantaneously.

"Don't try getting up, you won't get anywhere anyway." You told Gaara firmly. Gaara sat up straight and you bandaged his wounds again.

"I'm an old man, am I?" asked Kakashi aloud.

You quickly mumbled so that just you and Gaara could hear, "Your perverted like one..." Gaara chuckled a little. "Hey, Kakashi. Pick Gaara up for me." Kakashi started walking over and Gaara rested his head on your lap. After taking the necklace from underneath your shirt out, you put it over Gaara and asked, "I sort of ... took half of your necklace in case I had to leave or something so that I would never forget you. But please tell me this is actually yours..."

Gaara looked strangely inquisitive and whispered, "Let me have a closer look..." With the arm that had the gash in it, Gaara put his hand to your head and pulled you down slowly. He kissed you slowly and grinned as he did. He lightly let go of your head but continued kissing you as he lightly dragged his hand from your head down your neck and chest and then just dropped his hand. You started blushing quickly and Gaara licked your neck then you felt a wave of electricity go through you,

"Gaara, stop." You mumbled, but it was firm. He kissed you once more and then stopped. You looked away from Gaara and Kakashi and mumbled again to Gaara. "Did you really have to do that, Gaara?" He simply chuckled.

"You guys are … interesting." Kakashi said once he was standing over the two of you.

Gaara glared at Kakashi and said, "Do you feel like giving us some privacy, you old man?"

Your pink face went away so you looked at Kakashi seriously and told him, "Pick Gaara up. Now."

Kakashi did as told and held Gaara bridal style. You held in a chuckle and realized that Gaara was cringing. The two of you argued for a few minutes about how Gaara could be carried differently or just walk. In the end, he ended up being carried bridal style. You picked up Gaara's shirts and also made Kakashi carry them. Then you tried to pick up Gaara's gourd, it didn't leave the ground. "Are … are there bricks in here?"

"There's only sand." Gaara replied to you.

"And you carry this around everywhere? Jeez, you're skinny and fit too..." Suddenly, Kakashi caught your attention and started moving his eyes. You nodded and replied, "Yeah, he needs it." Gaara was confused and didn't like the sound of that so he tried to push himself off of Kakashi – which resulted in his shoulder hurting more. "Gaara, stop hurting yourself."

Eventually, you all reached the hospital. Gaara yelled out immediately, "No! Hell no!" He began to struggle, so you lightly poked his shoulder, which made him stop from the sudden pain.

"You only have to stay here for two days." Kakashi told him as you went in and explained the situation to the people at the front desk. Within a matter of minutes, there were people putting Gaara on a stretcher and rolling him into a room.

You asked what room and followed them slowly. Once you got to the right room, after invading some other rooms accidentally, you found that they were hooking up blood pouches up to Gaara's body. Once they were done, they asked if you were going to be staying with him for those two days. You answered affirmatively. She told you right away that there was a spare bed in the room here.

She left after that. But then Kakashi came in. He handed you Gaara's shirts and then said, "Look Maria. Sasuke is in the room beside this one, and I would like that piece of ice taken out of his leg, do it now. Or do you want to see that technique you hate so much?"

"I'll do it now. I'll be right back..."

You walked out and into Sasuke's room. He seemed to be sleeping and a memory came to mind. When you stayed with the Uchiha's years ago, you stayed in Sasuke's room. You remembered his peaceful face. But his face right now wasn't peaceful, it was rather strained, sad, hateful...

Naruto and Sakura were there. They glared at you right away. After ignoring them, you walked over to Sasuke and kept seeing that peaceful face instead of what was really there. You touched Sasuke's leg and mumbled, "Kiri." It turned to a light mist, which dissipated after a moment. You squatted at Sasuke's head and put a hand to his cheek, "Why were you affected this badly after so many years? Even though you're so cold now, there's still a softness about you … promise me you won't lose that small part you have left, Sasuke." There was a whisper that only you could hear. Sasuke opened his eyes slightly,

"I promise." You let out a sigh, and then your eyes widened as Naruto pushed you against a wall and held your neck tightly.

"What did you do to Sasuke?" Naruto yelled at you. You cringed at glared at Naruto as he held your neck.

"I thought Gaara had died, Sasuke told me to leave. I refused and got angry. Now get off of me, you little twerp."

Suddenly, the door opened. Kakashi was helping Gaara see what had happened. It was silent for a moment or two. In the corner of your eye, you saw Sasuke with his sharingan eyes glaring at Naruto. Then he closed his eyes. You kicked Naruto's shin and he backed up because of that, still glared and you walked towards Gaara and Kakashi. You took Gaara from Kakashi and walked to the other room. After putting Gaara to sit down at his own bed, you lay down on the separate one. You heard Gaara shuffle around slightly, and said "If you stress your arms at all, I will be angry."

Although you said that, you stressed your own self and began to cough up a little blood. You began to hear the conversation next door through the walls.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, "Why did you do that to her?" From the sounds of it, Naruto had been hit on the head by Sakura.

"I don't know! I was... I was still mad that she wanted that monster rather than me!" Naruto's reply made you get up and walk over Gaara; who had obviously heard what Naruto said. You walked over as Gaara's eyes went down and depressed.

You didn't ask Gaara to move his arms, you didn't want him to be hurt. "They can likely hear you two raging on about this," It sounded like Sasuke's voice. "I'm sure that they wouldn't want to hear all of this. Now, could you please leave? I would like to get a little more rest." Definitely Sasuke.

"Sorry," Sakura said again, "We'll leave. Come on, Naruto."

You heard footsteps and then silence. But again, more voices as you began to hug Gaara. The voices moved. Then the door to Gaara's room opened. "Maria, I'm sorry about Naruto." Sasuke apologized on behalf of him immediately. You stopped hugging Gaara for the moment and stood up to walk to Sasuke.

"Sasuke..." Your eyes were worried and apologetic at the same time. "I-"

"Don't worry about it. Just be taking care of that guy right now." You attempted a smile and thanked him. He nodded and Kakashi took him back to his room after saying he would drop by again tomorrow.

Once the both of them had left, you went back to Gaara and hugged him again. He lifted his arms slowly to hug you as well. "Don't hug back if it's going to hurt you in the end." Gaara ignored your words and continued to hug you. "I'm sorry," You whispered while leaning against his chest, "you got called a monster again."

"I don't care. You started coughing up blood because of Naruto. You don't deserve that, I'll kill him."

"Go ahead," You shifted a little, realizing Gaara's discomfort, "he hurt you and he hurt me...I won't be friends with him any longer."

Gaara was silent for a short while, then replied, "He didn't want to be friends in the first place. He just wanted you."

"...I-I guess... Anyway, what would you like to do for two days?"

"I don't care as long as you're here..." You blushed a little and kept your head down to hide the obvious quality. "And yes," he continued, "That is my necklace." You snapped out of it and looked at the necklace you were wearing. Gaara moved his arm a bit and took out the other half and a silver chain from his pocket, but it hurt him to move his arm. You grabbed his arm to stop him and just let it rest. You took it from his hand and held it in front of him.

"I could swear that you're actually _trying _to hurt yourself." You shook your head and Gaara quickly kissed your forehead as an apology.

You didn't have to ask and simply started to string the rest of the pendent onto the chain and began to put it around Gaara's neck. The fastener was finicky and it took a minute until you could actually get it on. But then you felt something going up your leg. A first thought was a spider so your eyes widened a little; but it wasn't a spider. Gaara's hand was lightly placed on your inner thigh and before you knew it, he had his lips working against yours. You let his tongue enter your mouth and you kissed him aggressively. Gaara continuously moved his hand around sensitive spots on your leg while kissing you.

You breathed deeply with a slight shake in your voice. You looked up into Gaara's eyes and chuckled lightly as you slowly pushed him onto his back. His eyes showed that he wanted more. You Pressed your lips down to his and kept him down by resting your head on his chest. But Gaara didn't feel like having that happen.

Gaara pushed you over onto your back and put his hand underneath your shirt. You blushed wildly. He simply grinned as he began to kiss you again. Gaara's hand continued to go up your shirt slowly, gliding his hand up your side and he finally moved your bra aside and massaged your breast. You gave a low moan as Gaara started to kiss your neck and keep moving his kisses lower and lower. It all aroused you. You didn't want to make any noise but another moan came as Gaara hit another sensitive spot.

"G-Gaara, stop it..." Despite saying that, you wanted more. But you knew that it would be in both his and your best interest to stop. "Gaara, I'm not joking... Please..." He stopped slowly, and you shivered. He gave you one more kiss and then whispered,

"Maria, I love you."

"I-I love you, too." You closed your eyes and continued to shiver a little. It was warm and then suddenly felt cold.

Gaara sat up with a slightly pink face. You stayed on your back breathing deeply to try and get rid of the feelings in your groin. "Excuse me!" You sat up right away and put on a cold stare as a woman walked in with a meal. "Here is some breakfast. Someone will be back later in a number of hours for lunch." She left after that and both you and Gaara took a breather.

"Maria, I don't know... what came over me. I'm sorry." He looked away but you nodded anyways and inched yourself closer to him to hug him closely.

"I'm going to go out for a little while and... go take a swim. I'll see you later."

"Alright. See you later..." Gaara looked a little nervous still and gave you another kiss on the lips. You got up and gave him another as well.

"Later." You smiled a little and walked out the door. You headed to the training grounds to take a swim. As soon as you got there, you dived into the water after taking everything but your undergarments off. You keep thinking that you shouldn't have done that with Gaara and how it'll be awkward the next time you see him. 'I just need to calm down,' you think, 'eh? What is that?' there was a white blur at the surface of the water. You swam to the surface and found that it was a small white dog. "Oh, aren't you a cutie?" You took your hand out of the water and stroked the dogs head, which seemed to appreciate the attention from a stranger.

"His name is Akamaru. I'm Kiba." Akamaru ran to Kiba and jumped onto his head. It was a pretty strange site; but you realized how you looked and sunk down lower into the water from what you were wearing.

"You're dog is really cute, Kiba. I'm Maria. Nice to meet you."

"Oh really?" he seemed curious about you, "You must be the girl that everyone is talking about. Everyone is all 'Maria this, Maria that'. You're from Sunagakure right?" You nodded a little depressingly, but tried to smile through it.

"Mhm. Close enough."

He smiled at you and said "We have to go now. But it was nice meeting you. See you around."

You waved them Good bye. Once they were gone, you got out of the water and got your clothes back on. Then you started heading to the Hotel for a change of clothes.

'I wonder what was going through Gaara's mind when that happened...' You still couldn't get the situation off your mind. It was just one of those things you couldn't forget too easily. You walked down the hall to the room and got changed. But then when you came out of the room, Temari and Kankuro were just leaving as well, and they didn't seem in their usual happy carefree mood. "Uh... Is anything up?" You asked timidly.

"We'll tell you once we see Gaara. Where is he?"

"He's in the hospital from blood loss... I'll take you there." You guys reached the room, and you told them that they could go in first, but they insisted that you should. But you told them to go in anyways and they obliged from not wanting to waste anymore time.

"Gaara," Temari started as Gaara was in a daze, "Gaara, this Rock Lee guy that you're supposed to face in the preliminaries isn't the easiest guy to get around. He's really fast and he's good at what he does. Watch out, you hear me?" Gaara simply sighed and nodded. "He looks like a wimp, but he's good. So just be ready." Gaara nodded again. Temari sighed, and then her and Kankuro left.

You were left alone with him again. "Gaara," his face went slightly pink, "I can help you train once you get your blood back..." You looked down and apologized again because of it being your fault that he lost the blood.

"Don't be sorry. It's alright. But I'll likely take you up on that offer for training if that's still okay." You nodded with a small smile.

"So..." You felt awkward silence coming on, "I saw a dog today... Anyway, that doesn't really matter. I just realized something though. When I first saw you with Taria, you told her who I was, but I never told you my last name beforehand... Do I get an explanation?"

Gaara just smiled a little. He motioned for you to come sit near him, you did so and then he spoke. "When we were 6, you came over to me and told me your full name. I remembered the little girl that gave me some happiness in my miserable life. That's just a moment in life that I'll never forget."

Gaara's eyes had a sadness about them at that moment. You got up from the seat you pulled up next to his bed, and kissed Gaara's cheek. "You're so cute." You whispered with a little smile. "But you seem a little sad right now..."

Gaara tried to laugh it off. But he just looked away and replied "Well, it's nothing really. I'm just thinking that it's been 6 years and I still remembered you as soon as I saw you in the desert. I knew exactly who you were. It just made me a little sad that the person I have learned to love in the last 6 years, despite them not actually being near me, had no clue about who I was at all... But it doesn't matter anymore because I have you now, and you do remember that moment from when we were 6 years old. But I'm glad, I feel like you've never really left me."

His words made you blush a cerise color. "Gaara, I love you." He smiled at you in the way that mesmerized you. It always made you happy to see him truly smile. You sighed deeply and whispered, "Gaara..." He looked at you concernedly, you hesitantly continued. "Do you... do you want to always be with me in the future?"

Gaara looked like he was about to laugh. "You're silly," he said lightly. You felt a little hurt that he wasn't taking this seriously. "Of course I want to be with you in the future. And I'm sure that we will be together as well. I love you."

You smiled shyly. "You want to get out of this place right?" You asked lightly. He nodded. "Then give me five minutes and we'll out of here by nightfall."

You started whispering some words and doing a load of seals. No one would have been able to follow the movements of your hands because of how fast you were making the seals. Gaara noticed that something was different and checked on his shoulders. You noticed that they were healing well as you kept making the seals. You stopped for a moment, being out of breathe with how much work your were actually doing. You continued and Gaara saw that his wounds were fully healed. Once you were done, you sad down next to him and checked his wounds.

"There you go." You smiled at him, "Now just hold on until someone comes in to check on you and you'll be home free." Gaara shook his head.

"You're... amazing." You stuck your tongue out at Gaara for saying that.

Your head started to spin. You knew that you were likely to black out for an hour or so because of doing that technique after so long, but it didn't matter too much as you were already in a hospital. But you sat down on the extra bed and said, "Gaara. I may be out for a little because of my doing that... I'm going to rest for a little while. But we'll be out of here in no time."

Gaara looked a little worried but just assumed that you would tell him about it afterward. Your consciousness drained away within minutes of laying down. You had a dream, or rather a nightmare, of Gaara. He slapped you and called you a freak. You just started crying uncontrollably and he murmurs, 'What a bother you are. Always crying. Is that all you can do?' Gaara just keeps laughing at you and it hurts you as if it's reality.

"Maria, why are you crying?" Back in reality, Gaara was beside you, holding your cheek and wondering what was so wrong that had you crying in your sleep. "You were sleeping for a few hours, but you started sobbing so suddenly... what's wrong?" he asked again worriedly.

You gasped and tried to calm down. "I'm... I'm-" The words wouldn't come out. But you kept trying, "-I'm alright... just a nightmare... That's all." Gaara asked quite suddenly about what had happened in the Nightmare. You told him hesitantly. But he understood and pulled you into his warm arms. Gaara wiped away your tears and sighed before speaking:

"Maria, you're not a burden to me. I mean sure, you cry a lot. But what does that matter when you're the one girl that I truly love? It doesn't matter. And I hope that I never hurt you.." He had a bit of a nervous expression when he said his last sentence. It made you want to ask about it, but before you could, Gaara had his lips on yours. You took the invitation very willingly and kissed him back so passionately that it gave you butterflies. The both of you continued to kiss for a few minutes until Gaara stopped to say, "I love you, Maria. Remember that."

"I -" You cut yourself off and kissed Gaara a little while longer, "-I love you so much, Gaara..."

Gaara kissed you for a last time, and then stood up with you. "Time to go. They checked on me, so we can get out of here now. How about we go and get something to eat. It's nightfall." You nodded with a dazed smile on your lips. Gaara rolled his eyes and then kissed you once more. "Let's go."

The both of you reached the lobby of the hospital but then you were quite curious about something. "Hold on Gaara, I think I left something in the room... I'll be right back."

"Oh? I can come with you."

"N-no! It's alright. It'll only take a minute or two to find." Gaara simply nodded and said that he'd wait in the lobby. You walked back to the room, but walked right past it. You looked into Sasuke's room to see if anyone else was in there but him. There wasn't, so you walked in nervously. "Um... Hi Sasuke... I was just wondering if it was you or Kakashi that said you should apologize? An odd question, I know, but I was just wondering."

Sasuke flashed a small smile and replied, "I did. Why do you ask?"

"Well I... I guess I just wanted to know if you were really a full jerk or not..." Sasuke rolled his eyes playfully, and you continued. " I just wanted to say thanks. And that it helps a lot to know that you aren't just a jerk these days. It's just nice to know that younger Sasuke is still in there somewhere."

Sasuke smirked. "Here's not here often."

"Sasuke... It was Itachi's fault, wasn't it?" You looked him in the eyes closely, "Itachi is the one that destroyed the clan. I want to support you Sasuke. I just don't want anyone else to die. You or your brother."

"Maria. Don't you dare say his name around me again. Don't relate me to that -"

Kakashi walked in. Both Sasuke and you stayed silent. You gave Sasuke one more look and said, "I won't." Then left. Your heart began to pound. You felt my face begin to flush and you were worried about not being able to calm down by the time you had gotten back to Gaara. Luckily, you were able to. But it was a close call. But you thought that was still strange... Your heart shouldn't be beating for Sasuke. You know you don't love him. You love Gaara.

"Maria." Kakashi's voice came to audio. "You used the technique didn't you? One of the blood limits." You turned around and nodded to him after reaching Gaara. He looked like he wanted to hit You, angered eyes. "Did you already faint?" He asked you.

"Yeah. I did. So you don't need to worry about anything. I know that the last time I used that was when my mother died... But I'm alright."

The three of you went quiet, but you didn't want to deal with an awkward conversation, so you urged Gaara to leave with you. Kakashi was fine with it. Gaara intertwined his fingers with yours and walked with you to the hotel. On the way though, you met Kiba and Akamaru again. "Hey, Maria."

"Oh. Hey Kiba! Akamaru." Gaara looked displeased.

"Akamaru said that he smelt you nearby. So we decided to say hi. So... hi. Haha." Kiba looked uncomfortable with Gaara glaring at him over your shoulder. Gaara was startled when Akamaru jumped into your arms. "He likes you, Maria." Akamaru licked your face and you smiled at him.

You held Akamaru out to Gaara, "Pet him. He won't bite." Gaara shook his head. "Please?" Gaara did so reluctantly, and Gaara touched Akamaru's head. Then Akamaru barked at him.

Gaara looked a little bit more calm. "We've got to head out now. See you around, Maria. You're a lot nicer than our books have said... They even said you were dead. Must have been a huge mistake! See you."

"Sure, Kiba. Bye for now!" You had rage written all over your face. "I'm very much alive... Gaara, I'm going to go and see the Hokage, so I'll see you at the Hotel later, alright?" You hugged Gaara tightly. "Wait, why were you glaring, and why did you seem weird with Akamaru?" Gaara cocked his head as if it weren't obvious.

He looked at you in the eyes while hugging, "Some random guy starts talking to you, and you're friendly with him. You can't expect me to just be fine with it. But he seems fine... You need to introduce people when I don't know who you're talking to. As for the dog... I was playing with one when I was younger, but then because I had no idea how to control the sand, I killed it. So I didn't want to touch the dog... I'm fine. Just a little anxious. I'll meet you at the hotel, good luck with what you're doing. I love you, Maria."

You looked thoughtfully at Gaara. "I love you as well. I'll be back soon enough." So you gave him a kiss on the cheek and then appeared in the Hokage's office.

The third Hokage was sitting at his desk, watching Naruto and Sasuke argue over something. "What in the hell are you telling students these days? I'm definitely alive, not dead!"

"Ah... Maria. We put it in the books and information slots that you were dead because no one knew what happened a year ago, and we didn't need anyone being scared that you were still alive and kicking. Kakashi and I knew, but no one else would have understood the matter."

All that you wanted to do was smash the old man's face in. But you yelled instead, "What? So instead of telling people something random like I went to another country, you tell them I die? Lying as a Hokage is no good to anyone."

"I had to." Was all he had to say. Suddenly, the door burst open with a gust of air. It seemed fragrant, it smelled like your mother had. Then she appeared out of nowhere... You knew it wasn't her but your eyes got wide and you ran to her. "Mother..." You mumbled.

You felt a sharp pain in your neck and then everything slowly turned black.

_End of Chapter 6 ~ Still Human_


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